Editing Convergent evolution (section)

==Overview==

[[File:Analogous & Homologous Structures.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Homology (biology)|Homology]] and analogy in mammals and insects: on the horizontal axis, the structures are homologous in morphology, but different in function due to differences in habitat. On the vertical axis, the structures are analogous in function due to similar lifestyles but anatomically different with different [[phylogeny]].{{efn|However, [[evolutionary developmental biology]] has identified [[deep homology]] between insect and mammal body plans, to the surprise of many biologists.}}]]
{{Further|List of examples of convergent evolution}}

In morphology, analogous traits arise when different species live in similar ways and/or a similar environment, and so face the same environmental factors. When occupying similar [[ecological niche]]s (that is, a distinctive way of life) similar problems can lead to similar solutions.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kirk |first=John Thomas Osmond |title=Science & Certainty |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kTr5BTxMpFYC&pg=PA79 |year=2007 |publisher=Csiro Publishing |isbn=978-0-643-09391-1 |page=79 |quote=evolutionary convergence, which, quoting .. Simon Conway Morris .. is the 'recurring tendency of biological organization to arrive at the same "solution" to a particular "need". .. the 'Tasmanian tiger' .. looked and behaved like a wolf and occupied a similar ecological niche, but was in fact a marsupial not a placental mammal.|access-date=2017-01-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170215051246/https://books.google.com/books?id=kTr5BTxMpFYC&pg=PA79|archive-date=2017-02-15|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Reece et al">{{cite book |last=Reece |first=J. |author2=Meyers, N. |author3=Urry, L. |author4=Cain, M. |author5=Wasserman, S. |author6=Minorsky, P. |author7=Jackson, R. |author8=Cooke, B. |title=Cambell Biology, 9th Edition |publisher=Pearson |isbn=978-1-4425-3176-5 |page=586|date=2011-09-05 }}</ref><ref name=BerkeleyHomologyAnalogy/> The British anatomist [[Richard Owen]] was the first to identify the fundamental difference between analogies and [[Homology (biology)|homologies]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Thunstad |first=Erik |title=Darwins teori, evolusjon gjennom 400 år |year=2009 |publisher=Humanist forlag |location=Oslo, Norway |isbn=978-82-92622-53-7 |page=404 |language=no}}</ref>

In biochemistry, physical and chemical constraints on [[enzyme mechanism|mechanisms]] have caused some [[active site]] arrangements such as the [[catalytic triad]] to evolve independently in separate [[enzyme superfamilies]].<ref name="Buller&Townsend_2013">{{cite journal |last=Buller |first=A. R. |author2=Townsend, C. A. |title=Intrinsic evolutionary constraints on protease structure, enzyme acylation, and the identity of the catalytic triad.|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|date=19 Feb 2013 |volume=110 |issue=8 |pages=E653–61 |pmid=23382230|doi=10.1073/pnas.1221050110 |bibcode=2013PNAS..110E.653B |pmc=3581919|doi-access=free }}</ref>

In his 1989 book ''[[Wonderful Life (book)|Wonderful Life]]'', [[Stephen Jay Gould]] argued that if one could "rewind the tape of life [and] the same conditions were encountered again, evolution could take a very different course."<ref name="wonderfullife">{{cite book| title=Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History |last=Gould |first=Stephen J. |author-link=Stephen Jay Gould| year=1989 |publisher=W.W. Norton |pages=[https://archive.org/details/wonderfullifebur00goul/page/282 282–285] |isbn=978-0-09-174271-3 |title-link=Wonderful Life (book)}}</ref> [[Simon Conway Morris]] disputes this conclusion, arguing that convergence is a dominant force in evolution, and given that the same environmental and physical constraints are at work, life will inevitably evolve toward an "optimum" body plan, and at some point, evolution is bound to stumble upon [[Animal intelligence|intelligence]], a trait presently identified with at least [[primates]], [[corvids]], and [[cetaceans]].<ref name=SCM2005/>