According to a news release from the Queen Mary University of London, the evolution of similar trains in dissimilar species, a process called convergent evolution, is prevalent at both the physical and genetic level.

The researchers examined the genomic basis for echolocation, one of the best-known examples of convergent evolution to study the commonness of the process at a genomic level.

According to Discovery, echolocation is the process of figuring out the distance and direction of objects by utilizing sound. The length of time between the emission of a sound and the detection of an echo reveals the distance of an object.

The researchers note that echolocation is an intricate physical trait that includes the production, reception and auditory processing of ultrasonic pulses for distinguishing hidden impediments or hunting down prey, and has developed separately in different groups of bats and dolphins.

The researchers conducted one of the biggest genome-wide surveys of its kind to determine the extent to which convergent evolution of a physical feature includes the same genes.

They compared and contrasted the genomic sequences of 22 mammals, including the genomes of bats and dolphins, and discovered genetic signatures in agreement with convergence in almost 200 different genomic regions clustered in several “hearing genes.”

To make this discovery, the researchers had to sort through millions of letters of genetic code utilizing a computer program created to determine the probability of convergent alterations taking place by chance, so they could accurately pick out the “odd-man-out” genes. They sorted through millions of letters of genetic code using a supercomputer at Queen Mary’s School of Physics and Astronomy.

Consistent with a connection to echolocation, indications of convergence among bats and dolphin were observed in many genes previously linked to hearing or deafness.

“We had expected to find identical changes in maybe a dozen or so genes but to see nearly 200 is incredible,” says first author Dr. Joe Parker.”We know natural selection is a potent driver of gene sequence evolution, but identifying so many examples where it produces nearly identical results in the genetic sequences of totally unrelated animals is astonishing.”

According to Dr. Georgia Tsagkogeorga, who conducted the collection of the new genome data for this study, the research “greatly adds to our understanding of genome evolution.”

The study’s findings are described in greater detail in the journal Nature.