Convergent evolution of behaviour in an adaptive radiation of Hawaiian web-building spiders

Convergent evolution of behaviour in an adaptive radiation of Hawaiian web-building spiders ››: While there might be a huge number of ways to skin a cat or, here, to spin a web, there seems to be a fair degree of determinability of this complex trait due to the environment. Divergent spiders created similar webs if their lifestyles and ecological relationships were similar, suggesting that evolution converges on a small number of good solutions to this problem. Closer relatives of the spider occupying other niches produces webs less like those of their cousins and more like those of their distant relatives living in similar circumstances. So how many other apparently-diverse environments are there where the solutions on which living organisms converge are actually fairly few in number? Do the same rules apply to the so-called cognitive niche?; [Permalink…07-Nov-04…Deserving memes…]

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