Hey again
How do we know if a question is talking about divergent or convergent evolution? Don't all species have a common ancestor if you go back far enough?
I came across a q that said the most recent common ancestor of two species was 100mya and they lived in different areas with similar environments and both had no eyes. It then asked if this was convergent or divergent evolution and apparently it was divergent even though they didn't say whether the no eyes trait was inherited from ancestors or developed due to similar environments.
Also what is the interaction between cultural, technological and biological evolution?
Yes, all species have a common ancestor if you go back far enough. You need to make an assessment of whether the environment or recent ancestory is most responsible for the traits of the species. In this question, I suspect they thought of it as 100 mya not being *that* long in the scheme of thing with evolution, especially in regards to something as significant as eyes. Having eyes in an environment where they aren't really useful isn't really something that's likely to be quickly selected against, some marine creatures that live where eyes aren't useful still have them despite them being non-functional.
There's multiple ways that these things interact.
Eg. Hominins developing complex social structures (cultural evolution) links with the sclera (part of the eye) becoming white (biological evolution)
Opposable thumb (biological) -> use and development of tools (technological)
Fire being used to prepare food (tech) links with proportionally larger brain size (bio)
Bipedalism encourages use of tools (It would be hard to carry a spear while running if all limbs were used for transport)