Hold tight! How two hurricanes forced a lizard to change its grip
Researchers studying anoles in the Turks and Caicos Islands discovered that the lizards evolved physical changes to their limbs and toes to survive intense hurricane winds. A new study identifies specific genes, including hs6st1, that facilitate these rapid skeletal and muscular adaptations.
Why it matters
This research provides rare, real-time evidence of natural selection in action, demonstrating how extreme weather events driven by climate change can force rapid evolutionary shifts in wildlife.
Picture a lizard the length of your finger clinging to a tree branch. The cause of its desperation is a 265 km/hr wind tearing through the air, threatening to peel it off like a loose sticker.
Just this happened twice in two weeks to a population of small brown anoles in the Turks and Caicos Islands in September 2017. So since then, these lizards have evolved to cling harder.
Four days before Hurricane Irma made landfall, a team of scientists from Princeton and Harvard Universities had wrapped up a routine survey of the Turks and Caicos anole ( Anolis scriptus ) on two islands, Pine Cay and Water Cay.
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in