I wonder if there are cases of creatures reevolving traits they had in the past naturally without human intervention.

 

Like say, a bird reevolving fingers or it's vertebrae of its tail or spine unfusing.

It's possible of course, but there has to be the right combinations of mutations and selection pressures.

 

I think the jargon used in phylogenics is called a "reversal" of a character state.

Yes. It's called Atavism.

Yes. It's called Atavism.

 

The examples in the article aren't really being selected for, I don't think. It occurs in individuals, but the entire population doesn't get the trait back.

Armadillos re-evolved scales in place of fur.

Snakes re-evolved limblessness -as did slow worms.

Woolly mammoths re-evolved fur from being pacyderms - as did woolly rhinos.

Can't think of any others right now. Probably loads of examples though.

 

Not sure about regaining lost limbs though. Evolution tends to go a certain way and develops easier ways of getting the same end result than simply going into a reverse gear.

Armadillos re-evolved scales in place of fur.

Snakes re-evolved limblessness -as did slow worms.

Woolly mammoths re-evolved fur from being pacyderms - as did woolly rhinos.

Can't think of any others right now. Probably loads of examples though.

 

Not sure about regaining lost limbs though. Evolution tends to go a certain way and develops easier ways of getting the same end result than simply going into a reverse gear.

Indeed, in the cases you have stated most are for warmth as the climate naturally chained or cause it heated back up again.

I wonder if there are cases of creatures reevolving traits they had in the past naturally without human intervention.

 

Like say, a bird reevolving fingers or it's vertebrae of its tail or spine unfusing.

 

You shouldn't necessarily think of the process as "re-evolution." That's just something we might say retrospectively. If a primate evolved claws, for example, it isn't "reversing" to it earlier state of clawedness, it is only evolving structures similar to claws for a functional purpose.

 

That's what marmosets have done, by the way.