Re: your mail

[jdharris@post.cis.smu.edu (Jerry D. Harris)]

>        That's not how I understood the question; the original poster was
>asking about the term for organisms that are the *end result* of
>convergent evolution.  For example, "The marsupial mole, the golden mole,
>and the true moles are _______, and they got that way through convergent
>evolution."
>
>        I'm not sure what to tell him.  Mimics?  Counterparts?
>Imposters?  Perhaps "confaciates" ("having appearances together")?  I've
>never heard a technical term describing this relationship--as opposed to
>the phenomenon that causes it, i.e. convergent evolution.  Am I making
>any sense here?

        Isn't "analogues" the word being sought here?  Things that arise by
analogy (convergence on a form that isn't based on close relationships) are
analogues, whereas those things which share homologies (similar traits
based on close relationships) are homologues.

Jerry D. Harris                       (214) 768-2750
Dept. of Geological Sciences          FAX:  (214) 768-2701
Southern Methodist University         jdharris@post.smu.edu
Box 750395                            (CompuServe:  73132,3372)
Dallas  TX  75275-0395

      \\             _^
      \\\         __/   >     "...having...seen those Grounds, out
       \ \\     _/       >    of which are digg'd up _shells_, and
   /    \ \\  _/         >    such like other things cast out by the
 _//_----\ \-/          >     Sea, and that everywhere we might es-
/   ( )    o           >      timate the number of times...the Sea
v--_                 >        had troubled here and there..."
    )     \ \   \_ >
^--/       \\  /                         - Nicolaus Steno, 1671
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