Mr Esquerre said not all evolution was driven by natural selection, but examples such as pythons and boas reinforce its importance in shaping biological diversity.
The research focused on the head shape of close to 2,000 specimens in museum collections in Australia and America. Similarly, the extinct Tasmanian Tiger, a marsupial mammal, and the wolf, a placental mammal, evolved similar body plans.Īlthough they look the similar and both constrict their prey, the pythons and boas last shared a common ancestor 70 million years ago in the age of the dinosaurs. Other famous examples of convergent evolution are sharks and dolphins, which are not related but have evolved similar body plans. "If we see that different groups evolve the same things independently when they face the same challenges, we can find predictability in evolution." "The finding of such a strong case of convergent evolution demonstrates the power of natural selection and adaptation in living organisms," said Mr Esquerre from the ANU Research School of Biology.
Convergent evolution is where species adapt to the same conditions and evolve similar traits. Lead researcher Damien Esquerre said the study found pythons and boas were an important example of convergent evolution in reptiles. Aquatic pythons look like aquatic boas, burrowing pythons look like borrowing boas and tree-dwelling pythons look like tree-dwelling boas. This happened at least five times in different habitats.
The Australian National University (ANU) study found that by living in the same habitat, pythons and boas evolved independently to look similar. Pythons and boas are two families that include the largest snakes in the world, like the reticulated python and the anaconda boa, which have been known to grow close to eight meters in length.
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