Homoplasy

A homoplasy (from the Greek homos " together ", " equal " and plasis " shaping " ) called in biology, a feature which is developed independently from each for several different taxa ( convergence). The term is mainly used in molecular biology for the comparison of gene sequences with morphological features, however, very often is simply spoken of convergent features.

The contrast of a homoplasy is the homology. The English term homoplasy is also frequently generally understood in terms of an analogy.

The term homoplasy 1870 was introduced in the technical language by Ray Lankester.