5 ms·
I'm so used to seeing the "fish crawling onto the shore" cartoon of evolution that I assumed the branching always went that way - land creatures are branchoffs
by Imnimo 1y ago
I'm so used to seeing the "fish crawling onto the shore" cartoon of evolution that I assumed the branching always went that way - land creatures are branchoffs of sea creatures. But surely this is oversimplified - are there examples in the other direction, where a branching occured in land animals and one branch then returned to the sea?
- MisterBastahrd 1y agoMarine mammals.
- showerst 1y agoI think all marine mammals fit this, right?
- Calavar 1y agoYes. And for a non animal example, there's sea grass, which evolved from land grasses.
- SideburnsOfDoom 1y agoAnd for an animal but non-mammal example, there are penguins.
- addaon 1y agoSea snakes, as well.
- riffraff 1y agoAnd sea turtles, and I guess iguanas are a kind of sea lizard.
- SideburnsOfDoom 1y ago> iguanas are a kind of sea lizard Only the marine iguanas, but yes. Also salt-water crocodiles (the largest living reptile).
- nonameiguess 1y agoMangroves are aquatic trees that evolved from regular land trees.
- nyanpasu64 1y agoSea grass is a monocot but belongs to a different order (Alismatales) than true grass (Poales).
- Calavar 1y agoThanks for the correction. Interesting
- dcminter 1y agoWhales are the first example that springs to mind.
- chasil 1y agoWhales. https://baleinesendirect.org/en/discover/life-of-whales/morphology/les-ancetres-des-baleines/ https://baleinesendirect.org/en/discover/life-of-whales/morp...
- ajross 1y agoAlso ichthyosaurs' ancestors were terrestrial reptiles, though the whole branch is now extinct.
- Qem 1y agoSloths (formely): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassocnus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassocnus
- nn3 1y agoThere are also lots of extinct examples like Ichthyosaurs, Mosasaurs, Plesiosaurs Modern examples are saltwater crocodiles, sea turtles or sea snakes
- maxbond 1y agoNot an animal, but many marine algae descend from freshwater algae, possibly because the last Snowball Earth event may have wiped out the marine algae by covering the oceans with ice (while freshwater algae survived in structures like cryoconites, tiny freshwater puddles that form on glaciers). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0R3FVTLvT0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0R3FVTLvT0 (People who know their taxonomy will notice that I'm conflating algae and cyanobacteria, mea culpa.)
- croisillon 1y agoTime for the aquatic ape hupothesis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape_hypothesis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_ape_hypothesis
- yndoendo 1y agoHippos come from the whale branch. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whippomorpha https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whippomorpha
- elevaet 1y agoHippos don't come from the whale branch, but they share a branch with whales. From wikipedia: > It is unknown whether the last common ancestor of whales and hippos led an aquatic, semiaquatic/amphibious, or terrestrial lifestyle However, whales are a great example of a clade that went land -> water in their evolutionary history.
- nyanpasu64 1y ago> Hyraxes have highly charged myoglobin, which has been inferred to reflect an aquatic ancestry.[20]
- lmpdev 1y agoInteresting thing about the evolution of Hyraxes is that it is likely to be an example of a Hard Polytomy - as in Hyraxes, Elephants and Manatees split off simultaneously
- SideburnsOfDoom 1y agoI knew that Hyraxes were related to elephants, And I've seen rock hyraxes in the wild many times, but TIL the term "Hard Polytomy" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytomy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytomy
- goosedragons 1y agoSea mammals.