From ScienceDaily:
Long-snouted crocodylians in South America, India evolved separately to adopt river-dwelling lifestyle, protruding eyes
The 13-million-year-old fossils of an extinct crocodylian, named ‘the storyteller,’ suggest that South American and Indian species evolved separately to acquire protruding, ‘telescoped’ eyes for river-dwelling, according to a study published April 20, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi from the University de Montpellier, France, and colleagues. Paper. (public access) More.
Parallel evolution from ScienceDaily:
One of the most spectacular examples of parallel evolution is provided by the two main branches of the mammals, the placentals and marsupials, which have followed independent evolutionary pathways following the break-up of land-masses such as Gondwanaland roughly 100 million years ago.
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While some forms were unique to each environment, surprisingly similar animals have often emerged in two or three of the separated continents.
Examples of these include the litopterns and horses, whose legs are difficult to distinguish; the European sabre-tooth tiger (Smilodon) and the South American marsupial sabre-tooth (Thylacosmilus); the Tasmanian wolf and the European wolf; likewise marsupial and placental moles, flying squirrels, and (arguably) mice.
We need to pay more attention to parallel evolution.
See also: Evolution appears to converge on goals—but in Darwinian terms, is that possible?
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