molecular

"This fascinating finding will open the door for many important discoveries. It will be interesting to reveal the molecular mechanism driving reverse development, and what happens to the animal's nerve net during this process."

“Those are just the extreme stories. On a daily level, on a molecular level, they’re all struggling to find food, to find water, to find resources that will help their children feel safe.”

As the authors of one 2016 paper on convergence at both the molecular and the more observable, morphological level put it, “convergence is caused by either repeated adaptations of different evolutionary lineages to similar environmental challenges or chance.”

He emphasized that the convergences we see — so many things that look like crabs, the camera-like eyes that evolved independently in both squids and humans, the emergence of opposable thumbs in giant pandas, chameleons and us — emerge from similarly astonishing, if less obvious, evolution at the molecular level: in the once-hidden world of genes.

“Your genetics actually plays a role in this increased risk of developing future heart attacks and stroke,” said James Hilser, a Keck doctoral candidate in biochemistry and molecular medicine who helped write the paper.