A Dutch Life

Very cool.

Italian wall lizards introduced to a tiny island off the coast of Croatia are evolving in ways that would normally take millions of years to play out, new research shows.

Those skeptical about evolution often struggle with how random mutation could possibly lead to adaptation in a species at a rate that could have delivered us the incredible diversity we enjoy on this planet.

In the past I have always reflected on the wonderful Peppered Moths or those little bacteria that evolved a capacity for eating Nylon. These offered good examples of evolution happening before our very eyes, but it’s nice to have another study.

Along with the ability to digest plants came the ability to bite harder, powered by a head that had grown longer and wider.

The rapid physical evolution also sparked changes in the lizard’s social and behavioral structure, he said. For one, the plentiful food sources allowed for easier reproduction and a denser population.

The lizard also dropped some of its territorial defenses, the authors concluded.

Such physical transformation in just 30 lizard generations takes evolution to a whole new level, Irschick said.