text: The enzymology of proteases provides some of the clearest known examples of convergent evolution. The same geometric arrangement of triad residues occurs in over 20 separate enzyme superfamilies. Each of these superfamilies is the result of convergent evolution for the same triad arrangement within a different structural fold. This is because there are limited productive ways to arrange three triad residues, the enzyme backbone and the substrate. These examples reflect the intrinsic chemical and physical constraints on enzymes, leading evolution to repeatedly and independently converge on equivalent solutions.