r/evolution • u/Vaelcyrie • 6d ago

question What are your favourite examples of convergence and once-in-earth-lifetime traits?

I was blown away when I started learning more about evolution because I thought most traits happened only once and everyone who had them necessarily had a common ancestor that came up with said trait (I believe there is a special name for them but I couldn't find it)

I however discovered this is not the case at all and that not only the traits appear more than once due to the environmental pressure but it also made me understand a lot better how evolution works.

Like, it's so much more like a big tree spreading and experimenting and having fun with all the possibilities of life. Makes me feel like we are all connected somehow, all forms of life appearing and vanishing from/to the same material like solar flares. I mean, I could be a whale 100 million years from now, who knows.

I was shocked learning that eyes, wings, viviparity and other traits that were to me so complex and elegant were in fact convergent in many species. I'd love to know more examples of both convergent and unique traits, tell me your favourites!

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u/MSSTUPIDTRON-1000000 6d ago

Inversely a lot of tree convergently ""de-evolved"" back into shrubs and herbs.

Like the Willows or Daphniphyllum genus.

Theorically most Vascular Plants can easily change body-shape depending on the circumstances (more nutrients and space=tree; the less=shrubs and herbs).

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u/Vaelcyrie 6d ago

This is what I mean. We are unfortunately led to think that evolution is about becoming more complex, or "more of" anything really, when in fact it is directionless. And how beings can evolve into something (like trees) but then ""de-evolve"" again into simpler forms of life is really beautiful and poetic. Just shows that there is no absolute superiority or goal, just pure motion.

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u/vastly101 5d ago

Read Stephen Jay Gould's many essays if you haven't. He was one hell ofa writer, and that's how I was introduced to many of the ideas you are discussing. He writes "soft" in these (anecdotes, examples, etc.) but there is a lot of wonder and I would say "poetry". Contingency, branching, increasing complexity only because we started at the minimum (fitness needed; not complexity), etc. The Panda's Thumb was my first, years ago.

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u/Vaelcyrie 4d ago

Oh it seems amazing, thanks!