Wesley R. Elsberry
Posts: 4113
Joined: May 2002
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It is really very curious - (speaking about Australian/Tasmanian/NZ versus Europian/American fauna) that natural selection could lead to striking similarity of placental and marsupial wolf (convergence).
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The convergence seems only to have influenced the gross morphology needed in common for running terrestrial predators, and we know via biophysics why that sort of thing happens. It is not curious at all that the dictates of physics has an influence on what happens via natural selection.
Beyond that, placental wolf and thylacine differ in the coloration, as Patrick pointed out; in cranial morphology; in dental formula; and in behavior; as well as the obvious difference in reproductive systems.
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"You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." - Dorothy Parker
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