Lizards show evolution in 15 years

Saturday, October 25, 2014, 1:27 PM - Usually evolution takes far too long to physically observe but in the case of anole lizards scientists are getting treated to an unusual spectacle.

It took only 20 generations—about 15 years—for the Florida-native lizards to show an evolutionary leap—feet better suited to climb trees.

To test the theory, scientists introduces brown anole lizards to an island naturally inhabited by green anole lizard. When these two subspecies compete, the green variants tend to take the higher ground. Fifteen year later, scientists returned to the island to find that the green lizards had not only moved to higher perches but had developed larger feet with stickier toe pads. This did not occur in green anole lizards that were living in a competition-free zone.

To rule out "phenotypic plasticity"—which is a term referring to changes an organism can make in reaction to the environment that don't affect their genes—scientists grabbed four females and analyzed the offspring. They found that the longer toes were being carried in the genetics of each animal, which was evidence of evolutionary change.

According to experts, the use of an invading species may have been the key. Species that are not natural to the habitat often encounter great opposing forces and impose equally strong pressure to the environment. This pressure and competition is what can speed up evolution.

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The study was published in Scienceon October 23 and was led by Yoel Stuart from the University of Texas.

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