List of examples of convergent evolution

• 
  Nubian vulture

  , an Old World vulture
• 
  Turkey vulture, a New World vulture
• 
  Hummingbird, a New World bird, with a sunbird, an Old World bird

• Passeriformes. Also the nectar-feeding Hawaiian honeycreepers resemble the two and differs from other honeycreeper.^[100][101]
• ratites, although they are not related.^[102][103]
• Certain longclaws (Macronyx) and meadowlarks (Sturnella) have essentially the same striking plumage pattern. The former inhabit Africa and the latter the Americas, and they belong to different lineages of Passerida. While they are ecologically quite similar, no satisfying explanation exists for the convergent plumage; it is best explained by sheer chance.^[104]
• Resemblances between swifts and swallows is due to convergent evolution. The chimney swift was originally identified as chimney swallow (Hirundo pelagica) by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, before being moved to the swift genus Chaetura by James Francis Stephens in 1825.^[105]
• Downy woodpecker and hairy woodpecker look almost the same, as do some 'Chrysocolaptes and Dinopium flamebacks, the smoky-brown woodpecker and some Veniliornis species, and other Veniliornis species and certain "Picoides" and Piculus. In neither case are the similar species particularly close relatives.^[106]
• Many
  robins, look like Northern Hemisphere birds but are not related.^[107]
• Oilbird like microbats and toothed whales developed sonar-like echolocation systems used for locating prey.^[108]
• The
  vocal learning (not by instinct) is very similar. These types of birds are not closely related.^[109]
• Seriemas and secretary birds very closely resemble the ancient dromaeosaurid and troodontid dinosaurs. Both have evolved a retractable sickle-shaped claw on the second toe of each foot, both have feathers, and both are very similar in their overall physical appearance and lifestyle.^[110]
• pinnipeds can do the same. Called Unihemispheric slow-wave sleep.^[111]
• Brood parasitism, laying eggs in the nests of birds of other species, happens in types of birds that are not closely related.^[112]
• The charadriiform buttonquails closely resemble the galliform quails.
• Gallopheasants and junglefowl have similar tail-feathers but evolved them independently.

Fish

• Aquatic animals that swim by using an elongated fin along the dorsum, ventrum, or in pairs on their lateral margins (such as
  Cephalopods) have all come to the same ratio of amplitude to wavelength of fin undulation to maximize speed, 20:1.^[113]
• Mudskippers and exhibit a number of adaptations to semi-terrestrial lifestyle which are also usually attributed to Devonian tetrapodomorphs such as Tiktaalik: breathing surface air, having eyes positioned on top of the head, propping up and moving on land using strong fins.^[114] Pacific leaping blennies also resemble mudskippers though they are not related.

• 
  Tiktaalik roseae - artistic interpretation. Neil Shubin

  , suggests the animal could prop up on its fins to venture onto land, though many palaeonthologists reject this idea as outdated
• 
  Boleophthalmus boddarti - a mudskipper which is believed to share some features with extinct fishapods in terms of adaptations to terrestrial habitats
• 
  A group of

  pectoral fins to prop up and move on land. Some scientists believe Tiktaalik

  to have acted likewise

• lumpsuckers
  , yet they are not related.
• The
  stingrays
  evolved, yet they share quite a similar appearance.
• Sandlance fish and chameleons have independent eye movements and focusing by use of the cornea.^[115]
• aufwuchs, although the former is found only in marine environments, while the latter is only found in freshwater Lake Malawi
  .
• Cichlids of South America and the "sunfish" of North America are strikingly similar in morphology, ecology and behavior.^[116]
• The
  Southern USA states and is a sunfish.^[117] others will surely be described (but see the results based on DNA data^[118]
  ).
• The
  antifreeze protein of fish in the arctic and Antarctic, came about independently.^[119] AFGPs evolved separately in notothenioids and northern cod. In notothenioids, the AFGP gene arose from an ancestral trypsinogen-like serine protease gene.^[120]
• electric organs and electrosensory systems evolved independently in South American Gymnotiformes and African Mormyridae.^[121]
• Eel form are independent in the North American brook
  neotropical eels, and the African spiny eel.^[122]
• Stickleback fish have repeatedly moved between marine and freshwater environments, with widespread convergent evolution to adapt and readapt to these environments in different species.^[123]
• birds, bats and other gliders.^[124]
• Extinct fish of the family Thoracopteridae, like Thoracopterus or Potanichthys, were similar to modern flying fish (gliding ability thanks to enlarged pair of pectoral fins and a deeply forked tail fin) which is not, however, considered to be their descendant.^[125]
• The cleaner wrasse
  Labroides dimidiatus of the Indian Ocean is a small, longitudinally-striped black and bright blue cleaner fish, just like the cleaner goby Elacatinus evelynae of the western Atlantic.^[126]
• The fish of the now discredited genus Stylophthalmus are only distantly related, but their larvae (Stomiiformes and Myctophiformes) have developed similar, stalked eyes.^[127] (see: Stylophthalmine trait)
• Sawfish, a ray and unrelated sawshark have sharp transverse teeth for hunting.^[128]
• leaf scorpionfish, flounder, peacock flounder. Some have active camouflage that changes with need.^[129]
• prey. Prey are not sure which is the front, the direction of travel.^[130]
• aquatic insects and some mollusk, like freshwater snails, squid, octopus.^[131]

• 
  Cleaner wrasse Labroides dimidiatus servicing a Bigeye squirrelfish
• 
  Caribbean cleaning goby Elacatinus evelynae

Amphibians

• Plethodontid salamanders and chameleons have evolved a harpoon-like tongue to catch insects.^[132]
• The
  glands. They have also independently evolved similar bright skin colors that warn predators of their toxicity (by the opposite of crypsis, namely aposematism).^[133]
• Caecilians are lissamphibians that secondarily lost their limbs, superficially resembling snakes and legless lizards.^[134]
• Oldest known tetrapods (semi-aquatic Ichthyostegalia) resembled giant salamanders (body plan, lifestyle), though they are considered to be only distantly related.^[135]
• A number of amphibians such as
  lungless salamanders and the Bornean flat-headed frog separately evolved lunglessness.^[136]

• 
  Elginerpeton pacheni, the oldest known tetrapod
• 
  Andrias japonicus

  , a giant salamander which resembles first tetrapods

• Many different amphibians are neotenic, evolved to retain larval traits (such as external gills) as part of an aquatic lifestyle. For example, Ambystoma mexicanum, an extant salamander, is difficult to tell apart from the Permian temnospondyl Branchiosaurus.^[137]

• 
  Branchiosaurus, a Permian genus
• 
  Mexican salamander (axolotl), extant

Arthropods

• The smelling organs of the terrestrial coconut crab are similar to those of insects.^[138]
• In an odd cross-phyla example, an insect, the hummingbird hawk-moth (
  Macroglossum stellatarum), also feeds by hovering in front of flowers and drinking their nectar in the same way as hummingbirds and sunbirds.^[139]
• Pill bugs and pill millipedes have evolved not only identical defenses, but are even difficult tell apart at a glance.^[140] There is also a large ocean version: the giant isopod.^[141]
• caddis flies, and the weaver ant all produce silken threads.^[142]
• The
  neuropteran insects Mantispidae.^[143]
• Gripping limb ends have evolved separately in scorpions and in some decapod crustaceans, like lobsters and crabs. These chelae or claws have a similar architecture: the next-to-last segment grows a projection that fits against the last segment.^[144]
• fungi for food. These insects sow, fertilize, and weed their crops. A damselfish also takes care of red algae carpets on its piece of reef; the damselfish actively weeds out invading species of algae by nipping out the newcomer.^[145]
• Slave-making behavior has evolved several times independently in the ant subfamilies Myrmicinae and Formicinae,^[146][147] and more than ten times in total in ants.^[148]
• orders.^[149]
• Parasitoid use of viruses:
  Parasitoid wasps lay their eggs inside host caterpillars; to keep the caterpillar's immune system from killing the egg, a virus is also "laid" with the eggs. Two unrelated wasps use this trick.^[150]
• Short-lived breeders: Species that are in the
  flies, dragonfly, silk moths, and some other moths.^[151][152]
• organs to attract females for mating .^{[153][dubious – discuss}
  ]
• praying mantises
  and winged moths.
• gyroscopes in flight.^[154]
• Carcinisation: A crustacean evolves into a crab-like form from a non-crab-like form. The term was introduced into evolutionary biology by L. A. Borradaile, who described it as "one of the many attempts of Nature to evolve a crab".^[155]

Molluscs

Vertebrate

Octopus

In vertebrate eyes, the nerve fibers route before the retina, blocking some light and creating a blind spot where the fibers pass through the retina and out of the eye. In octopus eyes, the nerve fibers route behind the retina, and do not block light or disrupt the retina. In the example, 4 denotes the vertebrate blind spot, which is notably absent in the octopus eye. In both images, 1 denotes the retina and 2 the nerve fibers, including the optic nerve (3).

• Bivalves and the gastropods in the family Juliidae have very similar shells.^[156]
• There are limpet-like forms in several lines of gastropods: "true"
  limpets, pulmonate siphonariid limpets and several lineages of pulmonate freshwater limpets.^[157][158]
• embryonic development, extraocular muscles, number of lens parts, and the lack of a retinal blindspot in the cephalopod eye.^[159][160]
• siphonophores such as the Portuguese man o' war.^[161]
• Bivalves and brachiopods independently evolved paired hinged shells for protection. However, the anatomy of their soft parts is very dissimilar, which is why molluscs and brachiopods are put into different phyla.^[162]
• Jet propulsion in squids and in scallops: these two groups of mollusks have very different ways of squeezing water through their bodies in order to power rapid movement through a fluid. (Dragonfly larvae in the aquatic stage also use an anal jet to propel them, and jellyfish have used jet propulsion for a very long time.). Sea hares (gastropod molluscs) employ a similar means of jet propulsion, but without the sophisticated neurological machinery of cephalopods they navigate somewhat more clumsily.^[163][164] Tunicates (such as salps),^[165][166] and some jellyfish^{[167][168][169]} also employ jet propulsion. The most efficient jet-propelled organisms are the salps,^[165] which use an order of magnitude less energy (per kilogram per metre) than squid.^[170]
• The free-swimming sea slug Phylliroe is notable for being a pelagic hunter that resembles a fish in body plan and locomotion, with functional convergences.^[171]

Other

• The
  chordates are like the stomochords in hemichordates.^[172]
• Gastrotrichs, despite being in 2 different superphyla, resemble the kinorhynchids
• Elvis taxon in the fossil record developed a similar morphology through convergent evolution.^[173]
• stinging nettles plant.^[174]
• glow worms. Bioluminescence is also produced by some animals directly.^[175][176]
• eggs. Some species are entirely female.^[177]
• Several worm phyla have evolved an eversible proboscis, with examples being acanthocephalans, priapulids, kinorhynchs, and some polychaete worms.
• Extremely
  archaeal family Halobacteriaceae and the extremely halophilic bacterium Salinibacter ruber both can live in high salt environment.^[178]
• Jellyfish-form Hydrozoans have evolved many times, including the Portuguese man-o' war, and the crystal jelly.
• In the
  W chromosome (ZW).^[179]
• Multicellular organisms arose independently in brown algae (seaweed and kelp), plants, and animals.^[180]
• Origins of
  teeth have happened at least two times.^[181]
• Winged flight is found in unrelated species: birds, bats (mammal), insects, pterosaur and Pterodactylus (reptiles). Flying fish do not fly, but are very good at gliding flight.^[182]
• Hummingbird, dragonfly and hummingbird hawk-moth can hover and fly backwards.^[183]
• jelly fish.^[184]
• Chordata, also is very much like jellyfish, yet completely different.^[187]
• castes system, all work together in a coordinate system. This system is used in many unrelated animals: ants, bees, and wasps, termites, naked mole-rat, Damaraland mole-rat, Synalpheus regalis shrimp, certain beetles, some gall thrips and some aphids.^[188]
• Oxygenate
  mollusks use copper (hemocyanin).^[189]
• bryozoans, echinoderms, tube worms.^[190][a]
• rudist bivalves).^{[191][192][193]}
• butterflies and birds.^[194]
• giant tube worm).^[195]
• fungi and algae. Each "species" of lichen is make of different fungi and algae species, thus each has to come about independently.^{[196][197][198]}
• crocodilians.^[199][200]
• Regeneration, many different unrelated species can grow new limbs, tail or other body parts, if body parts are lost.^[201][202]
• The
  bivalves,^[203] cnidarians,^[204] echinoderms,^[205] cephalopods,^[206] and crustaceans.^[207] Also found in single-cell ciliate. A similar structure is also found in Xenoturbella.^[208]
• Hearing came about in many different unrelated species with the: Tympanal organ, Johnston's organ and mammals/bird ears. Also the simpler hearing found in reptiles, with only the stapes bone.
• Pincushion-form starfish have evolved at least four times.
• pythons, vampire bats, and wood-boring wasps and fire beetles

• While most plant species are
  perennial, about 6% follow an annual life cycle, living for only one growing season.^[209] The annual life cycle have evolved in over 120 plant families across the entire angiosperm phylogeny.^[210] Notably, the prevalence of annual species increases under hot-dry summer conditions in different families including Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, and Poaceae.^[209]
• Leaves have evolved multiple times - see Evolutionary history of plants. They have evolved not only in land plants, but also in various algae, like kelp.^[211]
• herbivory, these structures have evolved independently a number of times.^[212]
• Stimulant toxins: Plants which are only distantly related to each other, such as coffee and tea, produce caffeine to deter predators.^[213]
• The
  ivy (Hedera) are similar to those of the climbing hydrangea (Hydrangea petiolaris) and some other vines. These rootlets are not derived from a common ancestor but have the same function of clinging to whatever support is available.^[214]
• Flowering plants (Delphinium, Aerangis, Tropaeolum and others) from different regions form tube-like spurs that contain nectar. This is why insects from one place sometimes can feed on plants from another place that have a structure like the flower, which is the traditional source of food for the animal.^[215]
• Casuarinas are flowering plants with fruit and leaves resembling the leaves and cones of the gymnosperm pines
• Some
  monocots (Trillium
  ) in inhospitable environments are able to form underground organs such as corms, bulbs and rhizomes for reserving of nutrition and water until the conditions become better.
• Venus fly trap, and pitcher traps in order to capture and digest insects to obtain scarce nitrogen.^[216][217]
• monocot lineage.^[218][219]
• Similar-looking rosette
  succulents have arisen separately among plants in the families Asphodelaceae (formerly Liliaceae) and Crassulaceae.^[220]
• The
  column.^[221]
• The
  Cactaceae of the New World deserts have similar modifications (see picture below for one of many possible examples).^[222]
• Sunflower: some types of sunflower and Pericallis are due to convergent evolution.^[223]
• arid conditions.^[224]
• C4 photosynthesis is estimated to have evolved over 60 times within plants,^[225] via multiple different sequences of evolutionary events.^[226]
  C4 plants use a different metabolic pathway to capture carbon dioxide but also have differences in leaf anatomy and cell biology compared to most other plants.
• horsetails, and seed plants
  .
• The marine animals sea lily
  palm tree.^[227]
• tree ferns.^[228]
• Flower petals came about independently in a number of different plant lineages.^[229]
• Bilateral flowers, with distinct up-down orientation, came about independently in a number of different plants like:
  orchids and peas.^[230][231]
• United petals, petals that unite into a single bell shape came about independently in
  blueberries, Ericaceae and other plants.^[232]
• Hummingbird flowers are scentless tubular flowers that have independently came about in at least four plant families. They attract nectar-feeding birds like: hummingbirds, honey eaters, sunbirds. Remote Hawaii also has hummingbird flowers.[233]
• Carrion flower type flowers that smell like rotting meat have independently came about in: pawpaw (family Annonaceae), the giant Indonesian parasitic flower Rafflesia, and African milkweed (Stapelia gigantea).^[234]
• Fruit that develops underground, after the upper part is pollinated the flower stalk elongates, arches downward and pushes into the ground, this has independently came about in: peanut, legume, Florida's endangered burrowing four o'clock and Africa's Cucumis humifructus.^[235]
• Plant
  cycads.^[236]
• Water transport systems, like
  gymnosperms.^[237]
• Wind
  grasses
  , and wind pollinated flower.
• Wind dispersal of seeds independently came about in
  cottonwood trees, and others tufted seeds like, impatiens sivarajanii, all adapted for wind dispersal.^[238]
• Hallucinogenic toxins independently came about in: peyotecactus, Ayahuasca vine, some fungi like psilocybin mushroom.^[239]
• Plant
  solauricine, daphnin, tinyatoxin, ledol, protoanemonin, lotaustralin, chaconine, persin and more.^[240]
• Venus flytrap sea anemone is an Animalia and Venus flytrap plant. Both look and act the same.^[241]
• Digestive enzymes independently came about in carnivorous plants and animals.^[242]

• 
  Euphorbia obesa
• 
  Astrophytum asterias

In fungi

• There are a variety of
  fungi, but it has also evolved in Actinomycetota (Bacteria), oomycetes (which are part of the stramenopile grouping, as are kelp), parasitic plants, and rhizocephalans (parasitic barnacles).^{[243][244][245]}
• protostelids, likely with separate origins, with protostelids themselves likely originating several times.^{[247][248][249]}
• Specialized forms of osmotrophy are found in unrelated fungi and animals.^[250]

In proteins, enzymes and biochemical pathways

Functional convergence

prolyl oligopeptidase, TEV protease, and papain.

Evolutionary convergence of threonine proteases towards the same N-terminal active site organisation. Shown are the catalytic threonine of the proteasome and ornithine acetyltransferase

.

Here is a list of examples in which unrelated proteins have similar functions with different structure.

• The convergent orientation of the
  enzyme superfamilies.^[251]
• The use of an N-terminal threonine for proteolysis.
• The existence of distinct families of carbonic anhydrase is believed to illustrate convergent evolution.
• The use of (Z)-7-dodecen-1-yl acetate as a sex pheromone by the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and by more than 100 species of Lepidoptera.
• The biosynthesis of plant hormones such as gibberellin and abscisic acid by different biochemical pathways in plants and fungi.^[252][253]
• The protein prestin that drives the cochlea amplifier and confers high auditory sensitivity in mammals, shows numerous convergent amino acid replacements in bats and dolphins, both of which have independently evolved high frequency hearing for echolocation.^[28][29] This same signature of convergence has also been found in other genes expressed in the mammalian cochlea^[30]
• The repeated independent evolution of
  nylonase in two different strains of Flavobacterium and one strain of Pseudomonas
  .
• The myoglobin from the abalone Sulculus diversicolor has a different structure from normal myoglobin but serves a similar function — binding oxygen reversibly. "The molecular weight of Sulculus myoglobin is 41kD, 2.5 times larger than other myoglobins." Moreover, its amino acid sequence has no homology with other invertebrate myoglobins or with hemoglobins, but is 35% homologous with human indoleamine dioxygenase (IDO), a vertebrate tryptophan-degrading enzyme. It does not share similar function with IDO. "The IDO-like myoglobin is unexpectedly widely distributed among gastropodic molluscs, such as Sulculus, Nordotis, Battilus, Omphalius and Chlorostoma."^[254]
• The hemocyanin from arthropods and molluscs evolved from different ancestors, tyrosinase and insect storage proteins, respectively. They have different molecular weight and structure. However, the proteins both use copper binding sites to transport oxygen.^[255]
• The hexokinase, ribokinase, and galactokinase families of sugar kinases have similar enzymatic functions of sugar phosphorylation, but they evolved from three distinct nonhomologous families since they all have distinct three-dimensional folding and their conserved sequence patterns are strikingly different.^[256]
• Hemoglobins in jawed vertebrates and jawless fish evolved independently. The oxygen-binding hemoglobins of jawless fish evolved from an ancestor of cytoglobin which has no oxygen transport function and is expressed in fibroblast cells.^[257]
• Toxic agent,
  beaded lizard, undergo convergent evolution. Although their structures are similar, it turns out that they increased the enzyme activity and toxicity through different way of structure changes. These changes are not found in the other non-venomous reptiles or mammals.^[258]
• Another toxin BgK, a K+ channel-blocking toxin from the sea anemone Bunodosoma granulifera and scorpions adopt distinct scaffolds and unrelated structures, however, they have similar functions.^[259]
• spruce budworm moth, and the snow flea."^[260]
• RNA-binding proteins which contain RNA-binding domain (RBD) and the cold-shock domain (CSD) protein family are also an example of convergent evolution. Except that they both have conserved RNP motifs, other protein sequence are totally different. However, they have a similar function.^[261]
• Blue-light-receptive cryptochrome expressed in the sponge eyes likely evolved convergently in the absence of opsins and nervous systems. The fully sequenced genome of Amphimedon queenslandica, a demosponge larvae, lacks one vital visual component: opsin-a gene for a light-sensitive opsin pigment which is essential for vision in other animals.^[262]
• The structure of
  immunoglobulin G-binding bacterial proteins A and H do not contain any sequences homologous to the constant repeats of IgG antibodies, but they have similar functions. Both protein G, A, H are inhibited in the interactions with IgG antibodies (IgGFc) by a synthetic peptide corresponding to an 11-amino-acid-long sequence in the COOH-terminal region of the repeats.^[263]
• The evolution of cardiotonic steroid (CTS) resistance via amino acid substitutions at well-defined positions of the Na⁺,K⁺-ATPase α-subunit in multiple insect species spanning 6 orders.[264]^[265][266]

Structural convergence

Here is a list of examples in which unrelated proteins have similar tertiary structures but different functions. Whole protein structural convergence is not thought to occur but some convergence of pockets and secondary structural elements have been documented.

• Some secondary structure convergence occurs due to some residues favouring being in α-helix (helical propensity) and for hydrophobic patches or pocket to be formed at the ends of the parallel sheets.^[267]
• ABAC is a database of convergently evolved protein interaction interfaces. Examples comprise fibronectin/long chain cytokines, NEF/SH2, cyclophilin/capsid proteins.^[268]

Mutational convergence

The most well-studied example is the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which independently evolved at the same positions regardless of the underlying sublineage.^[269] The most ominent examples from the pre-Omicron era were E484K and N501Y, while in the Omicron era examples include R493Q, R346X, N444X, L452X, N460X, F486X, and F490X.

Notes

1. ^ Biomineralization is a process generally concomitant to biodegradation.^[190]

References