Your misled moments with convergent evolution

[einsum]

This thread is about what recurring patterns reveal about evolutionary constraints and adaptive solutions. This is a sister thread to Your aha moments with mystery observations but deserves a new topic.

let me show two observations for context:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/168914790

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/37961110

On first glance, these two look strikingly similar when viewed side-by-side. If we relied only on superficial traits - especially in absence of dichotomous keys to these alternate forms unlike for gastropods shells - we could easily misplace them at family levels. Those two observations belong to entirely different families.

Closer comparison for those does reveal differences - one prominent being the edges sub-triangular vs thready, and ofc the geographic clue adds onto distinguishing these two species always and so can be morphometrics (if provided with reference scale in observations), …

But the broader point is this: such visual similarity is deemed to happen across clades at supra-generic levels even in overlapping geographic regions for various evo-devo reasons. From the perspective of convergent evolution, it feels as though nature is quietly smirking at us - placing subtle traps for identifiers and everyone :)

So, I invite everyone to use this thread to share any such observations and ID moments you had - from tricky mimics of unrelated groups to convergent evolution to just recurrent nature designs and morphological templates across lineages. Also discuss any interesting personal experiences or literature where a supposedly diagnostic visual character proved to be labile, misleading or insufficient to separate those taxa.

for the sake of restricting too many options to discuss and keep us focused, please avoid dwelling on congeneric lookalikes or maybe even similarities at tribal/subfamily levels, since their circumscription maybe dynamic and personal contextual opinions of taxonomists. We can also think that these subfamily levels are not truly that divergent from viewpoint of gene lines, even if a character is lost and suddenly regained within that depths. So by looking at broader lineages, I hope this thread makes others think of new questions and answers for the constraints and adaptations that may have caused these better.

finally, a shoutout to this mimic project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bee-and-wasp-mimics

[afdexter]

Lots of these in drier-zone Australian Loranthaceae, which mimic their hosts. I frequently get tripped up by the eucalypt mimics, which include Muellerina eucalyptoides, Amyema miquelii (one of half-a-dozen mimics in that genus), Diplatia grandibractea and Decaisnina angustata.

[einsum]

another insane convergent evolution of gastropod eggs structure from two very different families and oceans again:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/198524531

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/197504740

[susanne-kasimir]

Not that I’ve had a lot of ID moments with it, but there is one “classic” convergent evolution, that even got its own name: carcinisation.

[mark_marathon]

Another example from the Australian deserts - Acacia coriacea and Hakea macrocarpa. Almost impossible to distinguish without close examination. Particularly interesting, and frustrating, since they commonly grow literally side by side.

Nobody is sure whether this is just convergent evolution due to the plants being subject to the same environmental pressure, or some form of mimickry giving one or both species an advantage over predators. It would certainly make sense if predators couldn’t spot a food plant from a distance and had to waste energy walking up to each plant. Unfortunately we’ll probably never know the answer because the browsers these plants evolved with were all exterminated many thousands of years ago.

[susanne-kasimir]

It took me a while to learn to look at the feet…

[einsum]

my fav beetle mimics are these pairs that boris explained to me first time, can u figure out which pairs belong to different families? these are not exact mimic-models and there could be other better model species (alive or extinct) but just to see examples:

by © Paul Antony Mangaly CC-BY-NC

by Omkar S Damle CC-BY-NC

—

by hollythefrog CC-BY-NC

by emura_atka CC-BY-NC

(the answer to separate is in in antenna so RIP if blurry observations and then if they are unique species as both these also share same habitat as do most mimic-model pairs)

Its completely fascinating because if one knows only one group they are bound to trip, because one of that family is broadly nothing alike as these species

answer: second and fourth are lady beetles and other two are darkling beetles

[einsum]

here are two more, both arent in even same superfamily, just examples again and not exact mimic-model pairs:

by Tarun Karmakar cc-by-nc

by John Sterling cc-by-nc

it even stumped leading iNat swallowtail butterfly IDer @fabien_condamine recently which made us aware of this, so dont fret for first time :) - the answer lies in antenna again and second one with clubbed antenna is butterfly and the other is moth mimic - not sure which single species if any it is mimicking or just imperfect mimic of that butterfly group

[upupa-epops]

These aren’t likely to cause ID issues since they’re so widely separated but there are some mind-blowing convergent colour patterns in widely separated bird species:

Yellow-throated Longclaw (wagtail/pipit family, Africa) / Western Meadowlark (blackbird/oriole family, North America)

Red-winged Blackbird (blackbird/oriole family, North America) / Long-tailed Widowbird (weaver family, Africa)

Ocellated Tapaculo (tapaculo family, South America) / White-spotted Flufftail (flufftail/forest rail family, Africa)

Crag Chilia (woodcreeper/ovenbird family, South America) / Canyon Wren (wren family, North America)

There’s an old comment thread on the Redpolling Facebook group with like 30 more examples, it’s crazy. Fasciated Wren/African Spotted Creeper, Smith’s Longspur/Golden-breasted Bunting, Golden Monarch/Orange-crowned Oriole, Crimson-breasted Shrike/Painted Redstart…

A fun final example:

Eastern Shriketit (shriketit family, Australia) / Foxface Rabbitfish (rabbitfish family, Indopacific)

[jnstuart]

So are there any good examples of distantly related species that are convergent in their morphology and/or color patterns but are divergent in respect to their habits (natural history) or habitats? Or are all of these examples of organisms that are not closely related but are doing similar things?

[upupa-epops]

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock; insect and fruit eater from the Andes / 'I’iwi; nectarivore from Hawai’i

Grey Partridge (Europe) / Tawny-throated Dotterel (South America)

Masked Finfoot (Asia) / Many-coloured Chaco Finch (South America)

Also Bare-necked Umbrellabird/frigatebirds, White-headed Bulbul/Heermann’s Gull, White-capped Dipper/White-backed Swallow, Rufous-bellied Woodpecker/Red Phalarope…

White-banded Tanager looks so much like a Loggerhead Shrike that I would suspect mimicry except that the tanager’s range doesn’t overlap with any shrikes. There are several actual bird mimics; Zone-tailed Hawk/Turkey Vulture, Kermadec Petrel/skuas, hawk-cuckoos/sparrowhawks…

[einsum]

@jnstuart

distantly related species that are convergent in their morphology and/or color patterns but are divergent in respect to their habits (natural history) or habitats?

firstly, there is a spectrum here from levels of resolution here in those three terms - convergence, habits, habitats. For example:

• what looks convergence at surface level is different when viewed at clade characters resolution levels ofc and what we view as convergence can again be intertwined with Pareidolia and our own human attributions.
• and the natural history and habit is so broad term that encompasses multiple axes like food-activity-hunting-reproduction-social … aka to truly find divergence in all of these at a time or some relaxed resolution levels within that constraint. and if relaxing are we relying truly on causal axes. Say if there is a social life in two distant species but one’s social life is so different from others, but functionally if the convergence happened solely because there exists social life template alone and not causal on the exact procedures involved in that social life, then should we consider these or not. (and the exact trait’s causal reasons in lot of species are very hard ofc - see my strawberry question . we observe things and we can infer why that shape is optimal or why that color has advantage but the question of “is there real causal reason why only this appeared and not all other equally working solutions and is there any pre-bias in evolution pathways and if so what?” is always a roadblock in current science and that is important when we have to deal with convergent evolution)
• lastly the habitat has resolutions like micro (rocky vs marsh) or macro(aquatic vs terrestrial), …

I think the first is already seen under relaxed levels in above examples already whether by possible mimicry of extinct ancestor or adaptive radiations or just random evolution in distantly connected populations (notice how @upupa-epops birds doesnt overlap and my snail eggs dont overlap in ranges and are different families, so they have evolved the same visual traits independently perhaps - colors or shapes ) and in regards to Pareidolia we have the superficial Apefly pupa - they are definitely not mimicking each other nor it is a functional mimicry and its not true whole Ape body in first place but so does how we cannot expect full Ape bodyplan in butterfly clade too. Such scenarios we have to end up in when you are excluding mimics and also asking for different habits/habitats explicitly. We have to let go of strong convergence there.

Now the second condition is tricky. we can arrive at partial convergence. So although we can never find a “True” bird lookalike in deep ocean (although the modern land life evolved from oceans the actual bodyplans diverged vastly in between to their environment), but in relation to piecewise convergence we can find things like Flyingfishes. The fins and wings here are equivalent for their functional purpose which again evolved from different base body plans. Another example of Sea spiders which are nothing alike spiders in some ways but that is the closest convergence that happened in such vastly different habitat. we still dont know lot of marine life so I will leave the verdict of that out there as we can always find weird complex shapes that may converge to other groups easily - say what is this marine thing even .

Lastly, within similar habitat but different habits, dolphin and shark are so distant (then there is extinct reptile Ichthyosaur) - but the physics places limitations eventually on overall body plans in habitat (ofc they are only similar only when viewed at higher resolutions) and then we have Australian Echidna which are different order from Porcupines where both modified hairs but have disparate foraging styles and this section in Euphorbia which comes close to Cacti, differing in microhabitats but similar functional trait evolution we have Jerboas and Australian Notomys, flying squirrel Petaurista and Australian glider Petaurus which are different orders and also different microhabitat …

[mycographer]

While they are usually pretty easy to tell apart when fresh, morels (Genus Morchella) that are past their prime can look extremely similar to stinkhorns (Genus Phallus). I find this extremely cool given the fact that Morchella is in a different Phylum from Phallus! Real examples in which they have been misidentified on iNat:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?ident_taxon_id_exclusive=54593,56830&place_id=any&verifiable=any

Their last common ancestor was around 500 million years ago and was probably similar to a mold or simple filamentous fungus lacking large or complex fruiting bodies. Morels are more closely related to molds and yeasts than they are to stinkhorns.