Evolutionary Convergence

It's funny to me that Postosuchus and kin have become the tail dragging, cold blooded, non-intelligent, lizard-like animals in a tripod stance that dinosaurs once were... [img]http://www.sciencevisualization.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/revo-e1319180941550.jpg[/img] Convergent evolution is a cool thing. Animals that are only very distantly related, like ichthyosaurs and dolphins, end up evolving very similar characteristics. Postosuchus walked on two legs because its ancestors saw how efficient early bipedal dinosaurs were. Spinosaurs may evolved the conical teeth and long narrow jaws because the design was efficient in Dilophosaurus. Masiakasaurus grew long arms and claws, a narrow skull, long teeth and a diet like spinosaurs to get a better niche hold. Bahariasaurus became a fast and agile sprinter with long arms like the much smaller african dromaeosaurs, "the predator" may have been an abelisaur that mimicked tyrannosaurs or vise versa, megaraptors may have mimicked spinosaurs in hand design and megalosaurs and allosaurs evolved very similar characteristics, only the most advanced megalosaurs like Torvosaurus and Edmarka showed major differences.

What DF said and I have a few more examples: Armadillos, Echidnas, Anteaters and Pangolins look very similar yet all live on different continents and evolved from different animals Bats and pterosaurs Pachycephalosaurs and abelisaurs both had thick heads and short skulls covered in bumps and knobs

Haha. Hopefully we won't have to wait several decades for postosuchus to get an scientific makeover. Thanks for the other examples. The more and more I thought about it, the more common it actually seems. I didn't even think to connect sauropods and giraffes. Or rhinos and ceratopsians .