Natural Phenomena
Convergent Evolution
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Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species from different lineages, producing analogous structures that were not present in their last common ancestor. Camera eyes evolved separately in vertebrates, cephalopods and jellyfish, flight evolved separately in birds, bats and pterosaurs, and Australian marsupials and Old World placental mammals converged on strikingly similar body forms after evolving in isolation.
Facts
PeriodicityNot periodic; accumulates over millions of years, e.g. roughly 110 to 119 million years for electroreception to arise independently in two fish lineages 1 ScaleMolecular traits up to entire body plans, across unrelated lineages facing similar ecological pressures 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Demonstrated By
The whale's streamlined, fin-bearing body shape is a classic example of hydrodynamic convergence shared with unrelated fish and extinct marine reptiles adapted to the same open-ocean environment.
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