Scientists Discover Evolution’s 120-Million-Year-Old “Cheat Sheet”

Researchers found that butterflies and a day-flying moth repeatedly evolved similar warning wing patterns using the same two genes, ivory and optix.

The patterns were controlled by conserved regulatory DNA, showing striking genetic parallelism across seven butterfly lineages and one moth.

The work, published in PLOS Biology by teams including the University of York and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, spans more than 120 million years of evolution.

The findings suggest convergent evolution may be more predictable than previously thought and could help explain how species adapt to environmental change.