The two major branches of mammals—the placentals and the marsupials—followed independent evolutionary pathways after the breakup of the land mass Gondwanaland 100 million years ago. While some forms of each group are unique to each environment, surprisingly similar forms in each of the groups have often emerged in two or three of the separated continents. This is an example of ___________.
A) homologyB) parallel evolutionC) convergenceD) polyploidyE) gene duplication