My favorite instance of convergent evolution: Vultures. New world and old world vultures are virtually indistinguishable but have no similar ancestors. The only reason we found out that they were descended from different lineages was the fact that new world vultures peed on their own legs to keep cool like a handful of other new world birds while old world vultures did not.
Or like how all kids will change their answers if some kid gets it wrong, or "can I copy your homework?" "yeah, sure, just change a few words so that it becomes less obvious"
Convergent evolution, and honestly evolution in general, is the same as PvP game metas: people will naturally stray towards the most effective strategies, while inefficient or weak strategies will die out
Until the developers change something in the game code (the environment changing) and a new meta is established... Or a crazy player tries something new and breaks the game (humans developing tools?)
But if a game gets old enough people start doing strats that aren't the best, only because the meta gets boring. In evolution this isn't the case sadly. And also fun is a big part in game strategies.
@@ZNotFound No, it's not any kind of plagiarism... If they developed independently it's just coincidence and the fact that certain designs just work well in certain environments, so things will develop similar forms independently. It's just a bad metaphor in this case. You could only technically have plagiarism if you believed in creationism, but also believed in two creators, so one could plagiarize the other's work...
@@ZombieWilfred It's a joke referencing it in terms of a (published) paper. It's accidental plagiarism when you accidentally copy someone even you didn't know that you did. Obviously it's not really plagiarism because there is no copyright and stuff like that in nature.
a lot of animal species evolved from the vertebrate body plan, so the basic body structure is fixed and can't be changed much by evolution. If the aliens evolved differently (spine in the front? different limb structure/number? something completely foreign?) it could completely look "alien". Of course, some resemblences will be there because of physical reasons, but somehow I doubt that they are that similar to earth life. If you only look at the different categories: vertebrates, molluscs and arthropods, they all had some basic body plan and then evolved from that. Sure, there's a somewhat fish like sea slug, but generally they are greatly different from another. Heck, you don't even know if aliens would actually evolve things we could call plants or animals, even that might be totally different.
Hello! Sorry for this super late video I've been really super stressed lately so it took a while. Tell me what you thought! It's weird that this video isn't getting as much views as I typically get... maybe its some new RUclips Algorithm thing Sorry for the audio glitch at 5:44, I didn't notice it while editing. I'm supposed to say "Sometimes..." don't worry you didn't miss much. I was going to re-upload but I think its pretty minor
TREY the Explainer A lot of content creators are having a problem with RUclips notifying their subscribers about new videos and the like so not to worry trey my man its not you its very much them, your viewers are always hungry for more bromigo you do a great work 👍
I kinda like to think that Suminia evolved to be intelligent and even had early civilization but weren’t advanced enough to stop the Permian extinction.
Kind of reminds me of The Future is Wild and how scientists create speculative creatures filling the same roles as modern ones and convergent evolution going on and on forever.
Convergent evolution is one of the most fascinating things for me in the natural world! It’s so weird when things that share so much in common aren’t closely related at all.
Cities & Skyscrapers which those goddamn young earth creationist want to prove that all creatures were "specially" created individually by God. But no.
Saleucami you're in complete denial, i ask for proof and everytime i get answers like "scientists all agree" lazy answers from lazy brains. Haven't you ever watched a debate in your entire life? Darwinists never win, they just appeal to authority "scientists" and this shows they have a house built on sand
Mr Hawks, Appeals to scientists? Do you have any idea how theories are tried and tested before being shown to the general public much less becoming part of textbook syllabuses. Do you think people of science just go "Eenie meenie miney mo! Evolution I choose you!"?
Doco bonbon yes, that's exactly what happens, that's why it's not science. The only reason people believe it is because bullshit runs marathons. You wanna know what classifies as evidence? "This animal looks like that animal" can we puh-lease get a transitional fossil? They have been breeding fruit flies for how many centuries? Has a single fruit fly ever created a gene that hasn't existed before? No
"Could we ourselves just be a niche that could be filled in? Could intelligent creatures building tools, just like saber teeth and shark-like body plans, just be filled by different characters throughout time? It's kind of reassuring when you think about it. If we all died in a mass extinction, and almost everything was wiped out, there'd still be hope for the future in that we'd all be replaced eventually by bizarro versions of ourselves. Life can hit the reset button and start all over again. And it's been doing this time and time again. Extinction is sometimes just the beginning of a new chapter of the same story with similar roles, only with different actors. Who knows what the future or the past has in store. All I know is a safe bet that the animals of tomorrow or yesterday might resemble those of today, only if you squint real hard." -Trey the Explainer Absolutely beautiful.
@@rommdan2716 I don't, because it's simply an overused trope that has stunted imagination when it comes to aliens. So far, the only non-spec-evo work of science fiction featuring aliens that are actually somewhat creative I know of is the War of the Worlds, and those aliens are practically just giant weird cephalopods.
I kept waiting for the Triceratops - Rhinoceros comparison. I learned what convergent evolution was at age 6 or 7 or so at school, when they explained that Rhinos did not evolve from Triceratops, which was what a lot of kids assumed.
It is worth noting that convergent evolution isn't so simple when widely different yet complex organisms evolve for similar niches depending on what traits they originally possessed. This class of convergent evolution is probably best described by the Aye Aye and Woodpeckers which have adapted a finger and a beak respectively for the same role. Most of the listed examples with exception of the snail and fish one are from animals that started from relatively similar body plans that are much more likely to evolve towards similarity, in short direct convergent evolution is more likely the less complex the animals "starting" physiology. Which means humans are pretty unlikely to have a direct convergent twin unless they too were a primate as no other group of modern animals shares a similar body plan. Its not impossible just not all that likely.
Dragrath1 we had convergent twins there were many early humans that all evolved at the same time but we were the winners and because humans spread to every single country they ultimately mixed with those races until the human of today was basically everywhere. I think we had a convergent twin but we ultimately killed them.
Dragrath1 all that says is it will likely take time, for example a chimp or lemur may evolve to fill the tool using predator niche we fill and end up with our body plan relatively easily. Same with other mammalian species, like canine, felines, elephantidae or even sloths. Convergent evolution in related groups of animals seems to follow the same overall trends. Shown by the dinosaurs resembling their crocodilian counterparts often the Tr-J extinction or mammals resembling synapsids But, their are birds that use tools as well. They could fill the niche using their beaks in place of opposable thumbs to use tools, since they don’t have the same body plan as mammals which is the point your making
@Sam Smith Uh no, humans are outeating animals in every niche, much less a direct competitor. We will not share with that species, so it won't happen. Earth is owned by humans. We are running out of space for humans! We're struggling to keep even small animals alive. Because we compete for everything.
Our profesor was hypothesing that the closest animal to be able to evolve (with a lot of time) into something similar to us (apart from primates of course), was a bat. They are k-strategs, they live quite a long life, they have quite big brain, they often live socially and we can find reciprocal altruism among them. So.... batman.
Actually, tool use and promising levels of intelligence seem to be present in very different body plans than our own. Namely, corvids and parrots are both highly intelligent tool-users that could develop sapience given time.
I think it's important to note that evolution is also fairly random. It's like in D&D when you roll d20 with advantage, sometimes both rolls are bad, but usually the better roll is good enough to continue survival.
You mentioned the bad "design" of the vertebrate eye vs. the cephalopod eye. I think you need to do an entire video devoted to bad design in nature. By bad design I mean a structure, system, or organ with an obvious flaw that could have easily been corrected if all life was created independently from one another. Some good examples to talk about other than the vertebrate eye would be the left recurrent laryngeal nerve, wisdom teeth, and the appendix. I don't know what kind of designer would create life with these flaws, but it is certainly not an intelligent one.
The perfect design, sure. Cry’s with extreme back pain, without teeth in middle age, can’t breath because food went down the wrong pipe, and can’t see through my blind spot.
Convergent evolution is pretty much nature's version of "Hmm that's a nice worksheet you got there,it'd be a shame if I copied it in every way shape and form and handed it in as my own"
Nah its basically just the fact that their is a most efficient way to interact with each specific environment, so if the organisms share similar environments they will evolve similar features
9:35 - Okay, time for some to write an alternate history where the Permian extinction didn't happen and they ended up convergently evolving with humans.
Cubic Apocalypse I think we wouldn’t have evolved. Think about it. We would have evolved alongside them but they having a earlier start could drive us into extinction just like we drove every other human into extinction.
Rian Mach - when it comes to nature that which appears a "clever" adaptation is most likely a series of lucky helpful mutations of what works or works better in a given environmental situation. The bottom line is that life is constantly tested over vast amounts of time. Our blood doesn't just supply oxygen to our cells, it also feeds, removes waste, communicates and controls with hormones etc. detects problems and delivers immune system remedies. Almost all living systems act this way through endless trial and error. Effiencey is about survival in its most basic form. Your living cells you are made of are part of an unbroken chain of life going back to the first single celled creatures billions of years ago.
Swifts and Swallows are very interesting convergents. Though not exactly identical, they share similar flight patterns and styles and feed on similar food sources and are basically the same size. In fact birds are very interesting to observe. And you're right that there are many specialized species...birds for example have a specialist for literally every level of the forest. From the ground, to kneed/hip level, to chest/eye level, to above eye level and all the way to the top of the trees. In fact you can pretty much already narrow down the list of potential species just by where you see the bird. As a birder, these are helpful techniques so you don't strain trying to get your bins on every individual. Vocalization as well as behaviour and shape help a lot too.
On the more controversial end of things, abortion would be easier, and less controversial for marsupial humans. Just dont let the fetus crawl back into your body when its first born.
Ever since your very first video I've watched you get more and more adept at organising, writing and narrating these videos. Thank you, I love your work.
@@juliz2500 I don't know if that's what the poster of the original comment meant, but the chemical makeup is different, ie different factors caused the blondness.
@@juliz2500 I imagine having light hair at the equator being useful for protection since it's more reflective while blonde hair in the north is just a general lack of pigment.
If Suminia is the Permian equivalent to early primates....this could make excellent material for Fan-Fiction or a Sci-Fi Movie when someone competent gets this information. Imagine synapsid humanoids, having a civilization and such
2:17 "Little one, it's a simple calculus. This universe is finite, its resources, finite...if life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correcting."
That's idiotic even for a comic book villain. Entropy will win out. The only question is when. And honestly, life alone is nothing at the scale of the universe. It can't begin to compare to the effects of stars and black holes.
The irony is, the octopodes would likely invade the land quicker than squids, as they can already crawl on land. So the octolings would beat the inklings to land.
i must say, i've been watching stuff on RUclips since 2006. this video takes the award for the single most interesting video I've seen in that time. I love when i stumble across something that perfectly explains a phenomenon that i have noticed on my own but was unable to completely grasp the whole picture.
Another good example of convergent evolution is between the megalodon and the great white. While they are massively similar, save the obvious size difference, they are very, very distantly related on the shark family tree.
I would actually love to see you do another video on this subject, but specifically on the convergent evolution of flight and how many times it's evolved independently.
Not a human, but lemurs did evolve into ape-like, sloth-like, monkey-like and gorilla-like forms on Madagascar, before humans arrived and cut down most of the rainforest. Another Madagascan animal, the fossa, is also a good example of convergent evolution (it was shown in this video alongside a puma - the fossa evolved from the civet lineage, to fill the role of a big cat). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subfossil_lemur en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoindris en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossa_(animal)
@@stewartgames6697 not to mention, fossa is all muscle from head to tail, only 2% body fat and 75 kg of muscle. It is pretty much Arnold Schwarzenegger as a civet
that sea slug is pretty cool... Makes one wonder if they would take over if fish and other vertebrates got extinct. Could it even develop some equivalent if a spine? who knows...
Sea Slugs are insane. Though I wonder how much nutrition they would provide predators...Either they'd not be worth hunting, or the fish slugs would have to really up their rate of reproduction, they seem....low calorie.
@@differentlyabledmuslimjewi4475 Maybe if all fish died out and Sea slugs fish takes over, I'm pretty sure we would see Sea slug sharks too xD Its what trey has talked about, convergent evolution to fill the "shark" niche.
@@HueghMungus There's something like that going on right now. Due to overfishing, there is actually an overpopulation of jellyfish all over the world. They are quickly filling the niche that fish had. Who's to say over a few eons they evolve into jellyfish-fish lol.
Life is full of these. Here's 2 of my favorites: Bony fish (most fish excluding sharks, rays and kin) are more related to us than bony fish are to sharks. Also all fungi are closer related to animals than fungi are to plants
Excellent video, especially noting (as with those thylacines) that the convergence doesn't extend down to the detailed anatomy (it may be noted the placental and marsupial versions differ by their tooth layouts too). Creationists (Intelligent Design or YECers both) occasionally fume over this convergence issue as a way to supposedly "refute" evolution, when such examples actually affirm its principles oh so well.
so what a fully marine marsupial would be like, marsupial seal, marsupial dolphin, marsupial whale or some other fully marine marsupial that is basically plesiosaur as a mammal?
@@tijanamilenkovic9442 Their incomplete development at birth means they'd have trouble doing that. Though the egg-laying platypus can spend lots of time under water.
From what I learned from an Evolutionary Development class whose main topic was vertebrates, the reason vertebrate eyes and cephalopod eyes (yes, I know cephalopods aren't vertebrates) are so similar actually comes from the similarities in the underlying genetic mechanisms of eye development, summed up as "deep homology." So it's more like: "Can I copy your homework?" "Sure, just make it different so the teacher won't notice." "Ok, I'll just- oh wait, I was gonna write these answers down anyways lol" "Oh nice haha"
They basically have eight fingers with alot more dexterity than us, and their fine motor skills are pretty damn good. They could do many things we can do and alot more. The intelligence is the main thing to worry about, not their body plan.
I like to think evolution is like a lazy but very intelligent human: it'll try its best to waste the least amount of energy by getting really creative with the least amount of resources it can. If only we were as smart as evolution and not just as lazy as it...
I think the answer to ‘why?’ is simply ‘optimization’ things like specializations, natural selection and even the Golden Ratio are all examples of this in nature
Great video. Thanks a lot. Another great example I always found to be Bee Flies and Hummingbirds. Both drinking nectar from flowers with a straw like nozzle in stationary flight and pretty similar in basic layout too. There have been times that they got me confused on which is which.
Another quite baffling example of this phenomenon is the saw of the sawfish and the sawshark. These creatures are so bizarre, yet so similar but evolved their defining feature independently.
great video! I just have one problem with one thing you showed: tapirs and pigs are not comparable, aspecially not in lifestyle. tapirs dont dig for roots and look under dry leaves like pigs do, tapirs are browsers who eat from low bushes. thats why their neck is much more flexible, allowing them to look up. their nose is not stiff like a pig's, it's actually very trunk-like, and they use it to grab brances when they eat, or as a snorkle when they swim. a better example for convergent evolution would be pigs and pecaris.
Wonderful video, very clearly explained. This should honestly be showed in schools the quote “The roles stay the same the actors just change” is the best way to explain convergent evolution I’ve ever heard. 👍
@@gangpardos3833 the quickest test to tell if someone knows anything about politics is to see their reaction to capitalism being questioned. You sir have failed, please refrain from embarrassing yourself until you've learned some political theory, thank you and good night
Yeah I'm still considering that video as I really enjoy the concept and the history of it but don't bank on it too much happy you enjoyed this one though ;)
Despite its faults, the live action Green Lantern movie references the fact that a bunch of the sentient aliens have body plans similar to ours due to convergent evolution.
I love how alien planets in fiction with similar flora and fauna to our own could be explained with convergent evolution (assuming the planets conditions are similar to our own)
A cool example of convergent evolution is Pac-Man Frogs and Devil Frogs (the largest frog to have existed). They look nearly identical despite being from completely different continents!
It’s interesting to be a human because we lack that convergent counterpart, it makes me wonder if we’re a product of such a unique niche that a similar creature may never happen again. Either on another planet or our own in the future. Or maybe a world that has multiple consistent & separate niches, similar to the ones that caused us to Evolve that’s it’s just filled with different types of sophisticated intelligent life each spawning from a unique creature
I believe that if a really intelligent social animal (such as ants) learned to make fire then they would be right on par with us. Majority of technology is fire(heat generator) related
The thing about humans, is the more dominant we became, the less we had to care about natural selection. Our selection is mostly sexual. So driven by preference, and societal pressures. Humans caused humans to evolve the way humans did, at least over our more recent evolutionary stages. So natural selection probably can't come to a similar conclusion. If it did, it would be a fluke.
Great video on a fascinating topic. Convergent evolution has fascinated me for years. It occurs to me that perhaps not only individual species but ecosystems as well are driven to resemble each other.
The Poke'Saurus Based on the images, I'd wager it is definitely a type of sea slug. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the image to gube us a sense of scale.
This video was very helpful for my biology essay. Had a 1 hour lecture on convergent evolution that wasn't as insightful as this. Will make sure I include this in my bibliography
I think there was an episode of superfriends which features an island ran by an evil mad scientist who creates dinosaurs and does so by "de-evolving" modern animals such as a rhino to a triceratops, giraffe to a sauropod, and a bird into a pterosaurs 😂
dragom2009 I mean a mammal turn into a reptile? Or a avian turn into a pterosaur? More like if you devolve a modern rhino or giraffe they turn into something not impressive or huge. Like a huge rhino turns into a little horse like animal. Or the giraffe turns into a short necked giraffe. The bird on other if you devolve them you be surprised why it look like a dromeosaur.
Life doesn't need to reinvent the wheel, it just need to re-evolve the wheel. It isn't because they know the wheel exists, but because they experience the reasons that the wheel exists. (substitute "wheel" for a biological structure or feature of your choosing)
My favorite instance of convergent evolution: Vultures. New world and old world vultures are virtually indistinguishable but have no similar ancestors. The only reason we found out that they were descended from different lineages was the fact that new world vultures peed on their own legs to keep cool like a handful of other new world birds while old world vultures did not.
DJMouthwash
And Old World Vultures rely on sight to find food, while New World Vultures rely on smell.
@@beastmaster0934 a relatively small difference
I do that too but nobody calls me a new world bird
@@addisonalbert9078 try flying and eating pigeons raw.
@@addisonalbert9078 because you aren't doing It in public, now go you majestic bird! Show the world who you truly are!
Convergent evolution is a big meme in its self: It's basically the *"We have **_______** at home"* meme but It's mother nature who says it.
Basically yea
this
but i have this at home too
I'm Mr.asschecks
We have CRABS
Or like how all kids will change their answers if some kid gets it wrong, or "can I copy your homework?" "yeah, sure, just change a few words so that it becomes less obvious"
Convergent evolution, and honestly evolution in general, is the same as PvP game metas: people will naturally stray towards the most effective strategies, while inefficient or weak strategies will die out
Until the developers change something in the game code (the environment changing) and a new meta is established... Or a crazy player tries something new and breaks the game (humans developing tools?)
thee's a whole channel dedicated to that premise
But if a game gets old enough people start doing strats that aren't the best, only because the meta gets boring. In evolution this isn't the case sadly. And also fun is a big part in game strategies.
@@gzlzmaistro developing tools isn't a unique evolutionary trait, but I think we might be the first species to have specialised in it.
@@ChristmasCrustacean1 spec your build into intelligence, endurance and get the unbreakable will perk and you will become UNSTOPPABLE
"can i copy your homework?"
"yes but change it up a bit"
*Chin* *intensifies*
More like we accidentally wrote almost the same exact paper without cheating...
@@ZombieWilfred So it's accidental plagiarism?
@@ZNotFound No, it's not any kind of plagiarism... If they developed independently it's just coincidence and the fact that certain designs just work well in certain environments, so things will develop similar forms independently. It's just a bad metaphor in this case. You could only technically have plagiarism if you believed in creationism, but also believed in two creators, so one could plagiarize the other's work...
@@ZombieWilfred It's a joke referencing it in terms of a (published) paper.
It's accidental plagiarism when you accidentally copy someone even you didn't know that you did.
Obviously it's not really plagiarism because there is no copyright and stuff like that in nature.
So, one question remains...
Did basking sharks and barn owls convergently evolve to fill a human-misleading niche?
Yes, yes they did!
the memes
*O Shhiiiiiiitttttttt......*
EL Wallace
Ancient reptilian owls? Woo.
This makes me wonder how similar alien life on a similar planet might be to earth life.
bird guy damn
Mybe the bible was correct oooooooooOOOaoaoaoOOOCWEEEEEPEE
a lot of animal species evolved from the vertebrate body plan, so the basic body structure is fixed and can't be changed much by evolution. If the aliens evolved differently (spine in the front? different limb structure/number? something completely foreign?) it could completely look "alien". Of course, some resemblences will be there because of physical reasons, but somehow I doubt that they are that similar to earth life. If you only look at the different categories: vertebrates, molluscs and arthropods, they all had some basic body plan and then evolved from that. Sure, there's a somewhat fish like sea slug, but generally they are greatly different from another. Heck, you don't even know if aliens would actually evolve things we could call plants or animals, even that might be totally different.
@@rotnmold7861 No
Perhaps, everything is made out of apes.
Hello! Sorry for this super late video I've been really super stressed lately so it took a while. Tell me what you thought!
It's weird that this video isn't getting as much views as I typically get... maybe its some new RUclips Algorithm thing
Sorry for the audio glitch at 5:44, I didn't notice it while editing. I'm supposed to say "Sometimes..." don't worry you didn't miss much. I was going to re-upload but I think its pretty minor
what would your next paleoprofile video be on
TREY the Explainer A lot of content creators are having a problem with RUclips notifying their subscribers about new videos and the like so not to worry trey my man its not you its very much them, your viewers are always hungry for more bromigo you do a great work 👍
TREY the Explainer was about to comment out the audio glitch
Really good video!
TREY the Explainer great video as aways , Sir, I hope you continue to educate us, because Discovery channel has gotten way to low brow, lately.
I prefer this over the Megalania video, to be honest. Convergent evolution is one of the most interesting things about evolution, in my opinion.
Thanks! I'm happy you enjoyed it so much ;)
Ugh not hearing someone pronounce niche as “nitch” really soothes my soul
Trey: niches
YES!
YEEES!!
YEEEEEES!!!!!!!!
who THE FUCK ever said nitch
@@asneecrabbier3900 Canadians and the usa
John Ball I’ve always said neesh as an American.
@@AN-ou6qu me too lol
I get so ridiculously excited when YT notifies me that you've uploaded a new video!
Fascinating stuff, as always!
Thank you! I'm happy you like my stuff so much ;)
Wow! Amy, didnt know you watched this channel. Love your stuff!
>Suminia evolving into apelike organisms
>Permian mass extinction occurs
*HHMMMMM.......*
"Hey, I've seen this one!"
@@DreableNeebal10 "it's a classic"
4 million years from now mammal people will be the conspiracy theory
I kinda like to think that Suminia evolved to be intelligent and even had early civilization but weren’t advanced enough to stop the Permian extinction.
Mr Vespucci a.k.a Mega Nite or they got out and moved on to space
I think my favorite example of this is Carcinisation. Which in layman's terms basically means "crustaceans keeps evolving into crabs".
Wonder if there’s a giant monster crab out in the universe somewhere
@@NDwhITeBoYZ either was, is, or will be, yes
and then there are barnacles. UwU
Everything trends towards Crab. Crab is inevitable and eternal.
but there's also the opposite
Kind of reminds me of The Future is Wild and how scientists create speculative creatures filling the same roles as modern ones and convergent evolution going on and on forever.
HoopsAndDinoMan Yea, now that i think of it.
Hello ther
HoopsAndDinoMan or Dougal dixon's future zoology after man.
I was watching your review of that just before this was uploaded! :)
Yeah! Trey has to do a video about that too!
Convergent evolution is one of the most fascinating things for me in the natural world! It’s so weird when things that share so much in common aren’t closely related at all.
Cities & Skyscrapers which those goddamn young earth creationist want to prove that all creatures were "specially" created individually by God. But no.
I feel the same way ...
Easily my favorite biological strategy.
Saleucami you're in complete denial, i ask for proof and everytime i get answers like "scientists all agree" lazy answers from lazy brains. Haven't you ever watched a debate in your entire life? Darwinists never win, they just appeal to authority "scientists" and this shows they have a house built on sand
Mr Hawks, Appeals to scientists? Do you have any idea how theories are tried and tested before being shown to the general public much less becoming part of textbook syllabuses. Do you think people of science just go "Eenie meenie miney mo! Evolution I choose you!"?
Doco bonbon yes, that's exactly what happens, that's why it's not science. The only reason people believe it is because bullshit runs marathons. You wanna know what classifies as evidence? "This animal looks like that animal" can we puh-lease get a transitional fossil? They have been breeding fruit flies for how many centuries? Has a single fruit fly ever created a gene that hasn't existed before? No
"Could we ourselves just be a niche that could be filled in? Could intelligent creatures building tools, just like saber teeth and shark-like body plans, just be filled by different characters throughout time? It's kind of reassuring when you think about it. If we all died in a mass extinction, and almost everything was wiped out, there'd still be hope for the future in that we'd all be replaced eventually by bizarro versions of ourselves. Life can hit the reset button and start all over again. And it's been doing this time and time again. Extinction is sometimes just the beginning of a new chapter of the same story with similar roles, only with different actors. Who knows what the future or the past has in store. All I know is a safe bet that the animals of tomorrow or yesterday might resemble those of today, only if you squint real hard."
-Trey the Explainer
Absolutely beautiful.
Are we the first ones to fit in that Niche? Or There were "Humans" Millions of years Before?
Not similar in body structure, but dolphins and apes (or monkeys) kind of already occupy the same behavioural niche.
*Convergent Evolution in a Nutshell*
Creatures evolve a similar body plan even if they aren't related because it just works.
I hope that was a JoJo reference
@@splinkydoodah Nope, a Todd Howard reference :D
Charlie Yang todd howard approves
That is the reason I support the humanoid aliens in fiction.
@@rommdan2716 I don't, because it's simply an overused trope that has stunted imagination when it comes to aliens. So far, the only non-spec-evo work of science fiction featuring aliens that are actually somewhat creative I know of is the War of the Worlds, and those aliens are practically just giant weird cephalopods.
Sea Slug: Hey, can I copy your homework?
Fish: Sure.
you allready copied an other coment, the theory works!
I honestly don't think they look similar but sea slug existed before fish
Erick Kovalsky
God, reading that sentence was like repeatedly taking a club to the head while taking a algebra test
Sea Slug: Hey, can I copy your homework?
Fish: Sure.
I kept waiting for the Triceratops - Rhinoceros comparison. I learned what convergent evolution was at age 6 or 7 or so at school, when they explained that Rhinos did not evolve from Triceratops, which was what a lot of kids assumed.
Ikr! It didn't help that in Avatar they had komodo rhinos which looked like triceratops. Confused the hell outa me.
@@RaptorRockDrakeJesus Man I just don't like the komodo rhinos in avatar because that insinuates that there is a komoto island in that universe
@Robert Jackson I think that's awesome but the Avatar earth is not like ares
It just works
Nice Berserk logo!
Convergent evolution: natures flextape
Romulus Numa "Preston Darwin: another species needs an evolution"
Like King Crimson.
It just be like that ya know.
It is worth noting that convergent evolution isn't so simple when widely different yet complex organisms evolve for similar niches depending on what traits they originally possessed. This class of convergent evolution is probably best described by the Aye Aye and Woodpeckers which have adapted a finger and a beak respectively for the same role. Most of the listed examples with exception of the snail and fish one are from animals that started from relatively similar body plans that are much more likely to evolve towards similarity, in short direct convergent evolution is more likely the less complex the animals "starting" physiology.
Which means humans are pretty unlikely to have a direct convergent twin unless they too were a primate as no other group of modern animals shares a similar body plan. Its not impossible just not all that likely.
Dragrath1 we had convergent twins there were many early humans that all evolved at the same time but we were the winners and because humans spread to every single country they ultimately mixed with those races until the human of today was basically everywhere. I think we had a convergent twin but we ultimately killed them.
Dragrath1 all that says is it will likely take time, for example a chimp or lemur may evolve to fill the tool using predator niche we fill and end up with our body plan relatively easily. Same with other mammalian species, like canine, felines, elephantidae or even sloths. Convergent evolution in related groups of animals seems to follow the same overall trends. Shown by the dinosaurs resembling their crocodilian counterparts often the Tr-J extinction or mammals resembling synapsids
But, their are birds that use tools as well. They could fill the niche using their beaks in place of opposable thumbs to use tools, since they don’t have the same body plan as mammals which is the point your making
@Sam Smith Uh no, humans are outeating animals in every niche, much less a direct competitor. We will not share with that species, so it won't happen. Earth is owned by humans. We are running out of space for humans! We're struggling to keep even small animals alive. Because we compete for everything.
Our profesor was hypothesing that the closest animal to be able to evolve (with a lot of time) into something similar to us (apart from primates of course), was a bat. They are k-strategs, they live quite a long life, they have quite big brain, they often live socially and we can find reciprocal altruism among them.
So.... batman.
Actually, tool use and promising levels of intelligence seem to be present in very different body plans than our own. Namely, corvids and parrots are both highly intelligent tool-users that could develop sapience given time.
Evolution isn't about the "best possible" it is more of a "minimum necessary" approach.
I think it's important to note that evolution is also fairly random. It's like in D&D when you roll d20 with advantage, sometimes both rolls are bad, but usually the better roll is good enough to continue survival.
You mentioned the bad "design" of the vertebrate eye vs. the cephalopod eye. I think you need to do an entire video devoted to bad design in nature. By bad design I mean a structure, system, or organ with an obvious flaw that could have easily been corrected if all life was created independently from one another. Some good examples to talk about other than the vertebrate eye would be the left recurrent laryngeal nerve, wisdom teeth, and the appendix. I don't know what kind of designer would create life with these flaws, but it is certainly not an intelligent one.
Not to mention the fact that humans eat, breathe and suck through only a single tube, there is so much that can go wrong here!
Don’t forget our bad transition to bipeds.
@@brece5452 And why can't we have regrowing teeth like some reptiles? Why do we have to be dependent on dentists!?!
Tacitus reproduction and waste removal through the same area is a weird one.
The perfect design, sure. Cry’s with extreme back pain, without teeth in middle age, can’t breath because food went down the wrong pipe, and can’t see through my blind spot.
Convergent evolution is pretty much nature's version of "Hmm that's a nice worksheet you got there,it'd be a shame if I copied it in every way shape and form and handed it in as my own"
Nah its basically just the fact that their is a most efficient way to interact with each specific environment, so if the organisms share similar environments they will evolve similar features
"Hey, can I copy your homework?"
"Yeah. Just change it up a bit so it isn't obvious."
No, a better analogy would be two kids in different hemispheres both independently coming up with the excuse of "my dog ate my homework"
"There's already a George filling the George niche".
who the hell is george
@@johnjonjhonjonathanjohnson3559 hi
@@ihateyoube what the he
there is already a george ruclips.net/channel/UCwlwxJH96XwR-nt_Y5qBQ7w
@@johnjonjhonjonathanjohnson3559 theres more of us. Infiltrating every corner of your timeline.
9:35 - Okay, time for some to write an alternate history where the Permian extinction didn't happen and they ended up convergently evolving with humans.
Permian ape-men writing fictional stories about dinosaurs existing
I was thinking the same thing!
We'd probably end up enslaving them.
Cubic Apocalypse I think we wouldn’t have evolved. Think about it. We would have evolved alongside them but they having a earlier start could drive us into extinction just like we drove every other human into extinction.
@@CubicApocalypse128
You're kinda dumb
Your videos are so great! I always happy when they appear in my subscriptions!
You're insane, the term convergent evolution is just a testament to how in denial darwinists are
Darn squids with their flawless eyeballs..
My favorite analogy to convergent evolution is the fact that 'punk rock' was invented independently on at least 3 continents within the same year.
are these continents Europe, Asia and North America perhaps?
Nature is not lazy it's efficient. Great material and video as usual.
Grey Runner “efficiency is clever laziness”- fat nerd
Rian Mach - when it comes to nature that which appears a "clever" adaptation is most likely a series of lucky helpful mutations of what works or works better in a given environmental situation. The bottom line is that life is constantly tested over vast amounts of time. Our blood doesn't just supply oxygen to our cells, it also feeds, removes waste, communicates and controls with hormones etc. detects problems and delivers immune system remedies. Almost all living systems act this way through endless trial and error. Effiencey is about survival in its most basic form. Your living cells you are made of are part of an unbroken chain of life going back to the first single celled creatures billions of years ago.
Grey Runner bro lmao I was quoting an operator from siege
Swifts and Swallows are very interesting convergents. Though not exactly identical, they share similar flight patterns and styles and feed on similar food sources and are basically the same size. In fact birds are very interesting to observe. And you're right that there are many specialized species...birds for example have a specialist for literally every level of the forest. From the ground, to kneed/hip level, to chest/eye level, to above eye level and all the way to the top of the trees. In fact you can pretty much already narrow down the list of potential species just by where you see the bird. As a birder, these are helpful techniques so you don't strain trying to get your bins on every individual. Vocalization as well as behaviour and shape help a lot too.
“There’s never enough food, or water, or energy to go around.” Untill some monkeys decided to plant some fancy grass
Is it just me or is the audio is missing from 5:42 to 5:46
admittedly not a large time period but still
yea...
He just fucked up
I can confirm this.
It’s funny, that’s exactly where an ad for me played
13:00 Imagine a time when there lived marsupial version of humans
_Paws_ Oh God... Double pronged penises and Lady pouches.
man having a pocket on your body would come in handy
and pervs looking for pouch porn magazines
dear god
On the more controversial end of things, abortion would be easier, and less controversial for marsupial humans. Just dont let the fetus crawl back into your body when its first born.
Ever since your very first video I've watched you get more and more adept at organising, writing and narrating these videos. Thank you, I love your work.
Would also have been interesting to have compared the European blonde hair mutation with the Melanesian one too, very radically different
That sounds interesting. How are they different?
@@juliz2500
I don't know if that's what the poster of the original comment meant, but the chemical makeup is different, ie different factors caused the blondness.
@@juliz2500 I imagine having light hair at the equator being useful for protection since it's more reflective while blonde hair in the north is just a general lack of pigment.
@@HisameArtwork sounds like an interesting hypothesis, thanks!
If Suminia is the Permian equivalent to early primates....this could make excellent material for Fan-Fiction or a Sci-Fi Movie when someone competent gets this information. Imagine synapsid humanoids, having a civilization and such
2:17 "Little one, it's a simple calculus. This universe is finite, its resources, finite...if life is left unchecked, life will cease to exist. It needs correcting."
Matteus Silvestre all hail lord thanos...
When I got to that part I started snapping my fingers
I’m glad , I survived the snap...😂😂😂
this is convergent thinking
That's idiotic even for a comic book villain. Entropy will win out. The only question is when. And honestly, life alone is nothing at the scale of the universe. It can't begin to compare to the effects of stars and black holes.
The best example of inter phylum convergent evolution is the hummingbird and hummingbird hawk moth.
Yeah I completely forgot about that guy! I wish I included it in the video ;)
holy crap
No... Even here i am not save
"wed all be replaced"
hope splatoon becomes a reality. would wanna be reincarnated as an octoling lol
Relatable
@Wicked Marc The Future is Wild, was probably the name. (Just so you know there was also a cartoon series based on it.)
woomy?
S a m e
The irony is, the octopodes would likely invade the land quicker than squids, as they can already crawl on land. So the octolings would beat the inklings to land.
Trey don't be stressed out, we all love your videos and we know how hard you work on them, take as long as you need man
Thanks man, I'm happy you enjoyed it, thanks for understanding :) I'm happy I have fans like you
12:50 🅱️ *O N E L E S S F I S H*
would be great in a boneless pizza.
*Yesn't*
Haha funny
Oh no... _it is_
stop
i must say, i've been watching stuff on RUclips since 2006. this video takes the award for the single most interesting video I've seen in that time.
I love when i stumble across something that perfectly explains a phenomenon that i have noticed on my own but was unable to completely grasp the whole picture.
Another good example of convergent evolution is between the megalodon and the great white. While they are massively similar, save the obvious size difference, they are very, very distantly related on the shark family tree.
Tooth wise yeah, but we have no idea about what megalodon really looked like
Limited resources? I knew Trey was a loyal follower of Thanos.
PERFECTLY BALANCED
as all things should be
Thanos understands convergent evolution.
#thanosdidnothingwrong
I would actually love to see you do another video on this subject, but specifically on the convergent evolution of flight and how many times it's evolved independently.
These videos always make me wish I could just time travel and explore past creatures along with future creatures
Goats are like mushrooms.
Kris Mahaffey what is this Minecraft?
In that they both live off plants?
If you shoot a duck
I’m afraid of toasters
Same with ogres but with onions
Kris Mahaffey yah see a horse is a lot like a fish.
It would be weird to find a convergent evolved “human” lemur or something
Not a human, but lemurs did evolve into ape-like, sloth-like, monkey-like and gorilla-like forms on Madagascar, before humans arrived and cut down most of the rainforest. Another Madagascan animal, the fossa, is also a good example of convergent evolution (it was shown in this video alongside a puma - the fossa evolved from the civet lineage, to fill the role of a big cat).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subfossil_lemur
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeoindris
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossa_(animal)
@@stewartgames6697 not to mention, fossa is all muscle from head to tail, only 2% body fat and 75 kg of muscle. It is pretty much Arnold Schwarzenegger as a civet
Convergent Evolution is a really cool phenomenon. It also is really encouraging for the prospects for finding intelligent life on other planets.
that sea slug is pretty cool... Makes one wonder if they would take over if fish and other vertebrates got extinct. Could it even develop some equivalent if a spine? who knows...
Sea Slugs are insane. Though I wonder how much nutrition they would provide predators...Either they'd not be worth hunting, or the fish slugs would have to really up their rate of reproduction, they seem....low calorie.
@@differentlyabledmuslimjewi4475 Maybe if all fish died out and Sea slugs fish takes over, I'm pretty sure we would see Sea slug sharks too xD Its what trey has talked about, convergent evolution to fill the "shark" niche.
@@differentlyabledmuslimjewi4475 On that note image a gigantic SEA SLUG WHALE! I'll be terrified :D
@@HueghMungus There's something like that going on right now. Due to overfishing, there is actually an overpopulation of jellyfish all over the world. They are quickly filling the niche that fish had. Who's to say over a few eons they evolve into jellyfish-fish lol.
12:50 - AAAH! Ghost Leviathan!
Great video. Perhaps the next set of Humans evolve from Cats and become Elves.
Khajiit
so, like thundercats?
that would be sick (in a good way)
@@respectthefish4992 the world is sick (in a bad way)
TREY: Foxes are less related to thylacenes than we are to dolphins
ME: 😱😱😱😱
Life is full of these. Here's 2 of my favorites: Bony fish (most fish excluding sharks, rays and kin) are more related to us than bony fish are to sharks. Also all fungi are closer related to animals than fungi are to plants
@Shasvin Puvanesvaran plus, foxes are dogs and dolphins are whale
@@Dman9fp by the way cheetahs and leopards are less related to thylacoleonids than we are to whales
@@Dman9fpWe are Bony Fish
Excellent video, especially noting (as with those thylacines) that the convergence doesn't extend down to the detailed anatomy (it may be noted the placental and marsupial versions differ by their tooth layouts too). Creationists (Intelligent Design or YECers both) occasionally fume over this convergence issue as a way to supposedly "refute" evolution, when such examples actually affirm its principles oh so well.
so what a fully marine marsupial would be like, marsupial seal, marsupial dolphin, marsupial whale or some other fully marine marsupial that is basically plesiosaur as a mammal?
@@tijanamilenkovic9442 Their incomplete development at birth means they'd have trouble doing that. Though the egg-laying platypus can spend lots of time under water.
From what I learned from an Evolutionary Development class whose main topic was vertebrates, the reason vertebrate eyes and cephalopod eyes (yes, I know cephalopods aren't vertebrates) are so similar actually comes from the similarities in the underlying genetic mechanisms of eye development, summed up as "deep homology." So it's more like:
"Can I copy your homework?"
"Sure, just make it different so the teacher won't notice."
"Ok, I'll just- oh wait, I was gonna write these answers down anyways lol"
"Oh nice haha"
Lovely video as always.
Would you consider doing a video about the Cambrian explosion and theories surrounding it?
It's clearly Mothman.
Doco bonbon all animals on earth are actually basking shark in disguise
@@PlanetZoidstar are you sure it isn't a basking shark
Greatsaiyakirby you mean giant anurognathus?
*trigged*
The "everything turns into crabs" meme would be perfect for this video lol
Cephalopods... Convergent evolution... Human extinction
You should be able to connect the strings to this cryptic message now.
Riley theTyrant Not if we eat them all before they evolve! I hope that's a good plan. 🦑🍣
Donax Trunculus They'll find a way around that plan thanks to them not having blind spots like us. Darn squids with their flawless eyeballs...
No way could cephalopods do what humans can, you need a hand with fingers and an opposable thumb all with fine motor skills and nerves.
They basically have eight fingers with alot more dexterity than us, and their fine motor skills are pretty damn good. They could do many things we can do and alot more. The intelligence is the main thing to worry about, not their body plan.
No its not you idiot, a tentacle cannot do what a human hand can do, go do some research you fool.
If life truly was created by intelligent design instead of evolved
That intelligence is either lazy or a plagiarist
KSound Kaiju or stupid. That's why alot people don't believe in God cause they use logic and thinking about it.
Andrew Gan i wouldn't call it stupid, just uncreative AF
Either that or the dev gods were being rushed by the executive gods and recycled models to save time.
Avinash Nair- Tire Zoo
I like to think evolution is like a lazy but very intelligent human: it'll try its best to waste the least amount of energy by getting really creative with the least amount of resources it can. If only we were as smart as evolution and not just as lazy as it...
I learn more from you than I do from my actual teachers. Thank you and keep up what you are doing.
Lol, good thing is we know the Megalainia paleo profile is almost ready.
Lagiacrus The Terminator I got a question for you lagi... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).
The Primal Earth what’s the question Primal? *all goofy in tone*
Lagiacrus The Terminator HEHEHEHE
such a great informative video! Enjoyed every second of it and I am thankful for the work that you put in to making these amazing videos!
Thanks! I'm happy you enjoy my videos :D
I think the answer to ‘why?’ is simply ‘optimization’
things like specializations, natural selection and even the Golden Ratio are all examples of this in nature
you see? am a simple man
i see a new video by trey
i get happy!
Evolution : *CTRL-C CTRL-V*
Great video. Thanks a lot. Another great example I always found to be Bee Flies and Hummingbirds. Both drinking nectar from flowers with a straw like nozzle in stationary flight and pretty similar in basic layout too. There have been times that they got me confused on which is which.
Yep the humming bird hawk moth brought me to this video..so cool
Another quite baffling example of this phenomenon is the saw of the sawfish and the sawshark. These creatures are so bizarre, yet so similar but evolved their defining feature independently.
I love the use of Bowie as example of Europeans
XD I love Bowie
“May I please copy your homework”
“Yes, however, add proper grammar”
My favorite example of convergent evolution is how crabs consist of like twelve different seperate lines of ancestry.
It all returns to crab.
All hail the eternal crab
great video! I just have one problem with one thing you showed: tapirs and pigs are not comparable, aspecially not in lifestyle. tapirs dont dig for roots and look under dry leaves like pigs do, tapirs are browsers who eat from low bushes. thats why their neck is much more flexible, allowing them to look up. their nose is not stiff like a pig's, it's actually very trunk-like, and they use it to grab brances when they eat, or as a snorkle when they swim. a better example for convergent evolution would be pigs and pecaris.
imagine a transparent human-like creature that's descended from these sea slugs after almost everything dies ina a mass-extinction
I'm just picturing a weird, translucent version of Namekians from Dragonball.
1:03 Thats fossil blew my mind.
The perfect fossil
5:41 i think there's an audio error. Great video tho. Really interesting info i never really thought of.
Wonderful video, very clearly explained. This should honestly be showed in schools the quote “The roles stay the same the actors just change” is the best way to explain convergent evolution I’ve ever heard. 👍
7:40
And also, like many marsupials, if you can spot their jaw bones are actually several bones and not a single one.
Unless something really messes up earth
Modern Technology “Allow us to introduce ourselves.”
i think you meant to say capitalism
Mother Russia bugger of commie
Green Energy: Allow me to introduce myself
@@gangpardos3833 the quickest test to tell if someone knows anything about politics is to see their reaction to capitalism being questioned. You sir have failed, please refrain from embarrassing yourself until you've learned some political theory, thank you and good night
Brilliant video, you explained such a complex concept in such an entertaining and easy to understand way!
Cough, still waiting for that hidden golden city in the Amazon jungle probability video.
This one was absolutely amazing aswell thought. No pressure.
Yeah I'm still considering that video as I really enjoy the concept and the history of it but don't bank on it too much
happy you enjoyed this one though ;)
TREY the Explainer I've always enjoyed your videos, and still do!
You bring educational information with a tad of humour.
Despite its faults, the live action Green Lantern movie references the fact that a bunch of the sentient aliens have body plans similar to ours due to convergent evolution.
I had no idea about this concept. You blew my mind at least 5 times during this video! Thank you so much for this!!!
“Elaine! Wait! Can I come with you?” “Sorry, we already have a George.” *cue bass riff*
I love how alien planets in fiction with similar flora and fauna to our own could be explained with convergent evolution (assuming the planets conditions are similar to our own)
A cool example of convergent evolution is Pac-Man Frogs and Devil Frogs (the largest frog to have existed). They look nearly identical despite being from completely different continents!
It’s interesting to be a human because we lack that convergent counterpart, it makes me wonder if we’re a product of such a unique niche that a similar creature may never happen again. Either on another planet or our own in the future. Or maybe a world that has multiple consistent & separate niches, similar to the ones that caused us to Evolve that’s it’s just filled with different types of sophisticated intelligent life each spawning from a unique creature
GRRR I WANT ELVES ORCS AND DWARFS
I believe that if a really intelligent social animal (such as ants) learned to make fire then they would be right on par with us. Majority of technology is fire(heat generator) related
The thing about humans, is the more dominant we became, the less we had to care about natural selection. Our selection is mostly sexual. So driven by preference, and societal pressures.
Humans caused humans to evolve the way humans did, at least over our more recent evolutionary stages. So natural selection probably can't come to a similar conclusion. If it did, it would be a fluke.
One of my favorite memes: This niche empty, FEET
Great video on a fascinating topic. Convergent evolution has fascinated me for years. It occurs to me that perhaps not only individual species but ecosystems as well are driven to resemble each other.
“It just works” -Todd Howard
Evolution's just doing sequels now too.
“Hey, can I copy your homework?”
“Sure, but don’t make it obvious.”
*creates crab*
Wait does this mean the Reptites from Chrono Trigger could be real
Do you think the Phylliroe is a relative of that one mystery sea creature?
The Poke'Saurus
Based on the images, I'd wager it is definitely a type of sea slug. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the image to gube us a sense of scale.
This video was very helpful for my biology essay. Had a 1 hour lecture on convergent evolution that wasn't as insightful as this. Will make sure I include this in my bibliography
I think there was an episode of superfriends which features an island ran by an evil mad scientist who creates dinosaurs and does so by "de-evolving" modern animals such as a rhino to a triceratops, giraffe to a sauropod, and a bird into a pterosaurs 😂
hideously unrealistic :D
But you can not deevolve a any mammal into a dinosaur due they not have evolved from them.
dragom2009 I mean a mammal turn into a reptile? Or a avian turn into a pterosaur?
More like if you devolve a modern rhino or giraffe they turn into something not impressive or huge. Like a huge rhino turns into a little horse like animal. Or the giraffe turns into a short necked giraffe. The bird on other if you devolve them you be surprised why it look like a dromeosaur.
ah, rhinos? we all know you could only do that with ostrichs, and get a raptor
holy shit. physics literally controls everything. it makes us conform to it even when we don't realize. mindblowing to be honest..
You could have just said
"Hey, this is cool and helpful, I will evolve it"
"Oh look, another creature is doing the same thing for the same trait"
7:30 God forbid we don't confuse our students!
-Every university in the world.
Great video! It was as fascinating as informative.
The 2 toed sloth vs the 3 toed sloth is my favorite.
Hold up are they not decended from a common ancester?
Life doesn't need to reinvent the wheel, it just need to re-evolve the wheel.
It isn't because they know the wheel exists, but because they experience the reasons that the wheel exists.
(substitute "wheel" for a biological structure or feature of your choosing)
Me! Seinfeld fan, right here.