Comments on: Book review – Convergent Evolution: Limited Forms Most Beautiful

By: Book review – On the Wing: Insects, Pterosaurs, Birds, Bats and the Evolution of Animal Flight | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 12:44:33 +0000

[…] for pterosaurs or immature insects? And there is a very insightful piece on convergences (similar structures that evolved independently) and homologies (similar structures inherited from a common ancestor). For functional biologists […]

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By: Book review – Cave Biodiversity: Speciation and Diversity of Subterranean Fauna | The Inquisitive Biologist

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 09:41:55 +0000

[…] independent colonizations by different surface species? There is, perhaps not surprisingly, convergent evolution aplenty, which complicates our attempts at finding answers. Note, also, how caves resemble islands, […]

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By: Book review – Ancient Sea Reptiles: Plesiosaurs, Ichthyosaurs, Mosasaurs & More | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 10:39:14 +0000

[…] groups have complicated family relationships, precise placement and origins often remain elusive, convergent evolution seems rife, and many traditional classification schemes have been overturned in the last decade. It […]

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By: Book review – From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds: Six Myths of Evolution | The Inquisitive Biologist

Sat, 17 Sep 2022 11:22:58 +0000

[…] of fitness landscapes is almost a century old, and I have repeatedly converged on the topic of convergent evolution. Even so, in the process of describing what we know, Conway Morris throws up interesting ideas. […]

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By: Book review – The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 24 Jun 2022 11:34:21 +0000

[…] 2000s, DNA-based genealogies suggested that many supposed relationships were actually cases of convergent evolution, resulting in a new classification that reflected geographical patterns rather than anatomy. The […]

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By: Book review – The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries: The Evidence and the People Who Found It | The Inquisitive Biologist

Wed, 11 Aug 2021 15:42:09 +0000

[…] are classic topics such as convergent evolution, the evolution of the eye, and Lynn Margulis and her theory of endosymbiosis. The relatively young […]

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By: Book review – The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves | The Inquisitive Biologist

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 16:19:30 +0000

[…] in The Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology from MIT Press. Brief refresher should you need it: convergent evolution refers to the ubiquitous pattern of evolution repeatedly hitting on the same or similar solutions […]

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By: Book review – Beasts Before Us: The Untold Story of Mammal Origins and Evolution | The Inquisitive Biologist

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 09:00:52 +0000

[…] including the gorgonopsians, pioneered sabre-teeth, proving later groups to be mere copy-cats. Convergent evolution is, quite literally, a recurrent theme that Panciroli mentions whenever she can get away with it. […]

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By: Book review – Contingency and Convergence: Toward a Cosmic Biology of Body and Mind | The Inquisitive Biologist

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 09:52:22 +0000

[…] prominently Simon Conway Morris and George McGhee, have interpreted contingency as meaning non-repeatability, others (myself included) have equated […]

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By: Book review – Convergent Evolution on Earth: Lessons for the Search for Extraterrestrial Life | The Inquisitive Biologist

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 11:13:26 +0000

[…] Water. Not only is our planet mostly ocean, life also started out here. Following his 2011 book Convergent Evolution, palaeobiologist George R. McGhee returns to MIT Press and The Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology […]

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