Interesting. Totally new to me too. As to the - why?? - the first articles all just talked about "convergent evolution" which in itself is sorta vague.
Convergent Evolution Explained With Examples Written by the MasterClass staff Last updated: Nov 8, 2020 • 2 min read Teaches Conservation
Two species occupying a similar habitat may exhibit common physical traits; if these species come from different biological ancestors yet still have much in common, their similarities may be the result of convergent evolution. [...] What Is Convergent Evolution? Convergent evolution is the process by which two species develop similar features despite not sharing a recent common ancestor. Evolutionary biologists explain these similar characteristics as the product of natural selection. By sharing similar ecological niches, the two unrelated species benefit from developing the same functional characteristics. P - Convergent evolution occurs in all biological kingdoms, and it is particularly noticeable in plant species and animal species. The only requirement is that two species, lacking a common ancestor, undergo independent evolution that results in similar body forms or similar useful traits. https://www.livescience.com/14007-koalas-human-fingerprints.html
Ok, "similar habitat??" Humans don't exactly live in trees, i thought. So like you
'I never knew. And why a koala? Looked it up because I wondered if it were true."
me too. I read koalas each have a distinct fingerprint. That is a similarity, still it doesn't go to the why almost identical with humans??
The best i've managed is one which suggests Trump's fingerprint should be more like a koala's than most other humans. Seems "grasping" is thought to be key.
Koalas Have Human-like Fingerprints By Natalie Wolchover published May 04, 2011 [...] Scientists think the koala's fingertip features developed much more recently in its evolutionary history, because most of its close relatives (such as wombats and kangaroos) lack them. [...] Top row: Standard ink fingerprints of an adult male koala (left) and adult male human (right). Bottom row: Scanning electron microscope images of epidermis covering fingertips of the same koala (left) and the same human (right). (Image credit: Macie Hennenberg, et al. and naturalSCIENCE)
For centuries, anatomists have intensely debated the purpose of fingerprints. According to the team of anatomists at the University of Adelaide in Australia who discovered koala fingerprints in 1996, koala prints may help explain the features' purpose. The clue lies in our shared way of grasping.
"Koalas … feed by climbing vertically onto the smaller branches of eucalyptus trees, reaching out, grasping handfuls of leaves and bringing them to the mouth," the researchers wrote in their landmark paper. "Therefore the origin of dermatoglyphes [fingerprints] is best explained as the biomechanical adaptation to grasping, which produces multidirectional mechanical influences on the skin. These forces must be precisely felt for fine control of movement and static pressures and hence require orderly organization of the skin surface."
Humans and chimps grasp; koalas grasp -- to do so, it helps to have fingerprints.
Natalie Wolchover Natalie Wolchover was a staff writer for Live Science from 2010 to 2012 and is currently a senior physics writer and editor for Quanta Magazine. She holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Tufts University and has studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with the staff of Quanta, Wolchover won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory writing for her work on the building of the James Webb Space Telescope. Her work has also appeared in the The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best Writing on Mathematics, Nature, The New Yorker and Popular Science. She was the 2016 winner of the Evert Clark/Seth Payne Award, an annual prize for young science journalists, as well as the winner of the 2017 Science Communication Award for the American Institute of Physics.
Animal fingerprints, bit more - Standing Out From the Herd
In some species, individual animals can be distinguished by unique identifiers, not unlike human fingerprints.
By C. Claiborne Ray July 8, 2019
Victoria Roberts
Q. Do any animals have fingerprints or other features that uniquely identify individuals?
A. Scientists generally agree that closely related species like gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans have ridge patterns on fingers and toes that resemble those of humans and can be used to identify individuals .. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9780470061589.fsa1018 . As with humans, no two individuals with the same prints have been found.
Other characteristics have been used to identify individuals of a species, notably stripe patterns in cattle and zebras.
A database of stripe patterns has been collected for the largest species of zebra, Grevy’s zebra, and is used by the Grevy’s Zebra Trust to monitor the movements of individual animals in East Africa .. http://www.grevyszebratrust.org/stripe-recognition.html .
The system was begun in the 1960s by researchers Hans and Ute Klingel with photographs and file cards. The data have now been computerized, enabling automated searches for conservation purposes.
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