Question

Define atavism with an example.

Answer 1

There are certain characters which reappear in the organism which were lost and were present in the ancestor of the organism. This phenomenon is known as atavism. The common example is the presence of the legs in the case of snakes. Snakes are the reptiles which have lost their legs over the time of evolution. Due to atavism, there may be development of small legs in the snakes.