[ELI5] Why do mammal embryos look the same when they are developing inside their mothers?
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It’s not just mammals, the early stages of most vertebrates are very similar. The closer in relation you get to humans, the longer the embryos will look similar to human embryos. This is due to the fact that all life that exists today evolved from the same life form billions of years ago. So the genetic instructions used to create new species will be similar, but the further you’re separated from other life forms on the tree of life, the less similar you’ll be. For example, plants obviously don’t develop like humans. That said, vertebrates are relatively close to each other on the tree of life, and mammals are all very close to each other.
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