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I've been reading a book and stumbled upon what looks like a double conjunction 以及与:
他们惊讶地发现，虽然属于不同的时代，但那些动植物相互之间，以及与现代生物之间都有许多相似之处.
Is this a mistake? If not, then surely author differenciates between 以及 and 与, he gives them different functions. What are those functions?
Is there an alternative way to form such a sentence?
他们惊讶地发现，虽然属于不同的时代，但那些动植物相互之间，以及与现代生物之间都有许多相似之处.
'以及' means "and also";
"与" means "and".
Let's break the sentence apart and see what's missing:
那些动植物相互之间 (between those animals and plants themselves)
以及 (and also)
between (subject omitted) 与 (and) 现代生物之间 (modern living things)
都有许多相似之处. (all have many similarities)
The author wanted to say:
Those (ancient) animals and plants had many similarities between themselves; and also have many similarities between them and modern living things
It would be more clear if he didn't omit the repeated subject
[那些动植物相互之间]，[以及] [(那些动植物)与现代生物之间] [都有许多相似之处]
[between those animals and plants themselves]，[and also] [between (those animals and plants) and modern living things] [all have many similarities ]
the repeated subject (那些动植物) was omitted
"以及" means "as well as" or "also" "与" means "with" or 'to'
The sentence translates to:
To their surprise, they found out that, despite belonging to different ages, those organisms bear a strong resemblance to each other, as well as to modern-day ones.
