Abstract
Convergence is the evolution of the same or very similar traits independently in different lineages of organisms. There exist three different pathways by which evolution may produce convergent forms: allo-convergence, iso-convergence, and retro-convergence. Allo-convergent evolution is the independent evolution of the same or very similar new trait from different precursor traits in different lineages; iso-convergent evolution is the independent evolution of the same or very similar new trait from the same precursor trait in different lineages; and retro-convergent evolution is the independent re-evolution of the same or very similar trait to an ancestral trait in different lineages. In addition to convergent phenotypic and molecular evolution, ecological niche convergence is the evolutionary occupation of the same ecological niche, the same ecological role in life, independently by different lineages of organisms. Ecological niche convergence may not result in morphological convergence at all, in that ecologically convergent organisms may vary widely in their morphologies but their ecological niches, their modes of life, are the same.
Analyzing the phenomenon of convergence in evolution is now becoming as active a field of evolutionary research as the analysis of the phenomenon of divergence. The results of future convergence research should provide definitive answers to current questions concerning the degree to which evolutionary processes are predictable or unpredictable, limited or unbounded, directed or directionless, and the degree to which those processes are extrinsically (selectively) limited, intrinsically (developmentally) limited, or unlimited (random).
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McGhee, G.R. (2021). Convergence. In: Nuño de la Rosa, L., Müller, G.B. (eds) Evolutionary Developmental Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32979-6_124
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32979-6_124
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