![By Eric Kilby from Somerville, MA, USA (Clouded Leopard Mouth Open) [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.faraday.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/800px-clouded_leopard_mouth_open.jpg)
Clouded Leopard Mouth Open By Eric Kilby from Somerville, MA, USA [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
What if this process happened not just in human invention, but also in the natural world? New traits become available to organisms through changes at the genetic level, and largely at random, meaning that we cannot predict the possibilities which will arise. This has led many to believe that evolution is a completely random and un-directional process.
What we actually find is that natural selection imposes a filter on genetic possibilities, steering creatures towards beneficial change. If a trait evolves in two branches of the tree of life, but not in the common ancestor of those two, they have each reached this same solution independently. This is called convergent evolution. There are a myriad of examples of convergence and the list continues to grow.
![Sabretooth Tiger (Placental mammal) By Thelmadatter (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.faraday.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/450px-skullsabertoothcatgdl.jpg)
Sabretooth Tiger (Placental mammal)
By Thelmadatter (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
![By Remi Mathis (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.faraday.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/800px-molaire_de_mammouth_-_font_de_champdamoy.jpg)
Mammoth Molar By Remi Mathis (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
![Elephant Tooth / Brevard Zoo, Viera FL By Rusty Clark from merritt island FLA [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.faraday.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/800px-elephant_tooth_-_brevard_zoo_viera_fl_-_flickr_-_rusty_clark.jpg)
Elephant Tooth / Brevard Zoo, Viera FL By Rusty Clark from merritt island FLA [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
The best explanation for these data is that changes in tooth shape were driven by the benefits of being able to make efficient use of a particular food source. Following these developments through evolutionary time, you can see not only how the predators converge upon similar ways of capturing and eating their food, but also how this drives convergence within prey species as they seek to avoid predators. This ‘arms race’ is a strong force behind evolutionary changes in both hunter and hunted as they drive each other forward to new, improved, elaborate and fantastic innovations.
This evolutionary vantage point can amplify our awe at the fact that these gene-level variations, which we can neither predict nor control, lead to advantageous changes not only once in history, but over and over again.
This information was sourced from the Map of Life website where you can find further information and explore further examples. Professor Simon Conway Morris, Project Coordinator of the Map of Life, is Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge.