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Natural Phenomena

Convergent Evolution

Evolutionary Processes

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. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Disputed
First Described
The concept predates the phrase: British anatomist Richard Owen distinguished analogous, similar-function but unrelated-origin, structures from homologous, shared-ancestry, ones in the 1840s, before Darwin published his theory of evolution. The specific term convergent evolution came into standard scientific use later, with sources disagreeing on exactly when. 2
Periodicity
Not periodic; accumulates over millions of years, e.g. roughly 110 to 119 million years for electroreception to arise independently in two fish lineages 1
Scale
Molecular traits up to entire body plans, across unrelated lineages facing similar ecological pressures 1
Connections

Demonstrated By

Blue Whale, Species

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.

Source Convergent Evolution (Wikipedia)
Paramo, Biomes
Sources
1. Convergent Evolution (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Overview section
    When occupying similar ecological niches (that is, a distinctive way of life) similar problems can lead to similar solutions.
  • In Category: Natural Phenomena
  • Demonstrated By: Blue Whale
View the Source
2. Convergent Evolution (New World Encyclopedia)
New World Encyclopediamain text section
Quote, main text section
The terms analogy and homology were actually coined by Richard Owen in the 1840s, prior to Darwin's theory of evolution
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