:
|
...and yet the similarites are astonishing with say a dolphin to a shark (You could say this is becuase they have adapted, but becuase the process is random, then why the hell are they so alike? Shouldn't there be much more different forms that are just as efficient).
|
It's called convergent evolution. Similar results have come about, partly through chance, and as presumably, more primitive designs happened to have similar adaptations earlier on, and eventually resulted in the same design. The process of evolution works through the species with better adaptations usually surviving. Sharks evolved an excellent design very early on, long before the dinosaurs, and thus it has changed relatively little over all this time, as it still functions very well in our modern times as it did back then. Dolphins evolved far more recently, and from completely different ancestors, that were originally land living mammals, but evolved similar traits (flaps of skin became fins, etc.), and so became their current form. Sharks and dolphins have more differences than similarities to each other, however.