Bottlenose dolphins can detect prey with a sonar-like trick similar to that used by bats — and the similarity extends to the genetic underpinnings of this ability.
DOUG PERRINE/NATURE PICTURE LIBRARY
A new analysis suggests that many genes evolved in parallel in bats and dolphins as each developed the remarkable ability to echolocate.
Different organisms often independently evolve similar observable traits such as anatomical or functional features, but the genetic changes underpinning such 'convergent evolution' are usually different. The new study, published today in Nature1, hints that evolution may be finding the same genetic solutions to a problem more often than previously thought.

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