Convergence, Natural Selection, 'Survival of the Fittest'

1. Choose one of the examples of convergence from the "Improbable Destinies" Chapter

The eyeball of an octopus and the eyeball of humans.

2. Explain what convergent evolution means (perhaps contrasting it with divergent evolution will help).

Convergent evolution is when two different species that had evolved separately from two distantly related ancestors share some features, such as fish and whales, even tho the two species have the same structures they are two completely different species.  in contrast divergent evolution is when two species come from the same ancestor.

3. Explain AND illustrate how your choice in #1 is an example of convergent evolution.

As it was demonstrated in the reading, even thought the most the recent common ancestor between humans and octopuses existed about 550 million years ago, we both share almost identically structured eyes. 

4. Given this week's exploration of natural selection provide ideas of how these two distantly related organisms could have developed convergent features. This exploration MUST adhere to the precepts of natural selection. 

In the paragraph over the octopus eye v.s. the human eye, it is mentioned that the most recent ancestor did not have any eyes meaning that over the course of generations and speciation eyes began as a random mutation to different species, and with the advantage of eyesight natural selection began picking against organisms that didn't have the advantage of eyesight to find its meals and evade its predators. Therefore as eyes began developing and becoming more common in populations and species, eyes also began developing in more ways to provide more advantages, such as being able to measure depth, perception, and seeing colors all of these adaptations and mutations must have developed independently in one species and coincidentally was also occurring in another specie.