The most remarkable luciferin in terms of its distribution is known as coelenterazine. This nitrogen-ring based molecule is found in nine separate groups, ranging from radiolarians to fish.

Flying through the air on a summer's evening or sparkling in the ocean you may see magical flashes of light that signal some of nature's most enchanting creatures, those that are bioluminescent.

Foregut fermentation is best known from the ruminants, such as cattle, deer and giraffes, that regurgitate and rechew their food to aid microbial digestion. However, they are not the only mammals to have evolved this digestive strategy...

A foregut-fermenting bird was long considered a paradox. But what about the hoatzin, a curious South American bird known locally as the "stinking pheasant" thanks to its smell of fresh cow manure?

Pufferfish are some of the most extraordinary fish to have evolved, especially because of their capacity to swallow water and inflate themselves to something like a football. Not only that but some representatives can be deadly to the unwary diner...

A fascinating example of convergence in bacterial cell shape is the independent evolution of multicellularity in magnetotactic bacteria, with striking similarities to the arrangement seen in eukaryotic green algae.

Examples include endoplasmic membranes with a capacity to attach ribosomes in E. coli, and in the hyperthermophile Archaea what are evidently vesicles that are believed to have budded from a cytoplasmic membrane.

Magnetotactic bacteria provide some excellent examples of convergent evolution.  In particular the ability to synthesize iron compounds has evolved at least twice, respectively employing iron oxide (magnetite) and iron sulphide.

Surely, no organism can survive in boiling water or brines nine times the salinity of seawater? Wrong - some archaea and bacteria have independently evolved adaptations to such extreme environments...

Sodium voltage-gated ion channels are vital to electric signal transmission, but it is less widely appreciated that they are convergent and have evolved at least twice in groups outside the animals.

Light sensitivity based on opsins is well documented, notably in the cyanobacterium Anabaena where it is involved with photosynthesis and in particular the production of key pigments.

One convergent avenue to obtaining nitrogen is to employ symbiotic bacteria that typically are found in root nodules, perhaps best known in the legumes.

It is now clear that the cellular construction of at least the eubacteria is more complex than realized, and includes organelle-like structures known as microcompartments, of which the best known are the carboxysomes.

Lysozymes are common antibacterial enzymes that protect our eyes and nose from infection, but some animals have recruited them for a rather different purpose...

Ever tried eating a newspaper? Don't. Plant cell walls contain cellulose, which is notoriously difficult to digest. Considering that all vertebrates lack the enzymes to attack this polysaccharide, how do so many of them manage to survive on a plant diet?

Carbonic anhydrase is extremely convergent and may have evolved as many as six times. The most familiar variants are α, β and γ carbonic anhydrases.

Re-running the tape of life presupposes that history can be run many times independently, and this of course can be readily achieved with bacteria.

Interesting convergences between bacteria and eukaryotes include aspects of communication linked to quorum sensing and enhanced cooperative activity in terms of formation of biofilms, mass attack on prey and dispersal.

The bacterial flagellum has proved to be a cause celebre because of its high-jacking by the “intelligent design” movement who argue that it is “irreducibly complex” and therefore could not have evolved by Darwinian processes.

Regulation of gene networks and cell cycles are of particular importance for convergence because genomic organization in bacteria shows significant differences from the eukaryotes.

Interestingly, it has now been shown that the saliva of the aphids has an analogue to the anti-coagulant properties of blood suckers, subverting the wound repair mechanism of the plant.

Not only are there intriguing parallels in the story of gene loss in chloroplasts and mitochondria, but there is also the re-invention of bacterial pathways, such as oxidation of quinols.

Independently the sap-feeding aphids and psyllids have recruited γ-proteobacteria, respectively best known from Buchnera and Carsonella, in an intimate and obligate symbiotic relationship.

Interestingly, many parasitic bacteria show dramatic and parallel gene reduction independent of each other, although here various vital functions are now undertaken by the host.