by Marcus Ross

Abstract— Writing on the heels of his final chapters in Crucible of Creation, Cambridge paleontologist Simon Conway Morris returns to the theme of convergence and its implications for our understanding of evolution in Life’s Solution. Convergence (also called homoplasy in cladistic terminology) is the independent origination of similar traits among distantly related organisms. Life, argues Conway Morris, is replete with examples of convergence on every level. Molecules, cellular structures, macroscopic features, behaviors, and even particular types of intelligence all display convergences. It is the perhaps ubiquity of convergence that offers the most interesting insight into evolution: inevitability.

The full paper is available below:
A Review of Life's Solution by Simon Conway Morris

Back to PCID Volume 4.1, July 2005