From E.T to the X-Files, aliens from outer space have captured our imagination for decades.
Yet a new book from a leading evolutionary biologist argues that if they exist and we ever encountered them, they would look very similar to us.
Professor Simon Conway Morris said extra-terrestrials that resemble human beings should have evolved on at least some of the many Earth-like planets that have been discovered by astronomers.
In his new book published on 2 July, The Runes of Evolution, the University of Cambridge academic builds on the principle of convergent evolution – that different species will independently evolve similar features, with the comparison of the camera eye of an octopus and a human eye a favourite example – and argues it
will not just took place on Earth.