Lizards in a Hurricane
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analyze This hurricanes may help lizards evolve better grips in places blasted by high winds, lizards have larger toe pads that may improve their ability to hang tight by Carolyn Wilke Published August 26th 2020 on science news for students dot org. During a hurricane, strong winds blast the shore gusts can reach speeds of 250 km or 155 mph or more. Some animals, including lizards, may get blown away, but with a good grip, others can weather the storm. A new study suggests that such hurricanes helped lizards evolved traits that allow them to hang tight. Colin Donahue is an Ecologist who studies evolution at Washington University in ST louis. He and his colleagues have been studying two populations of Caribbean Anil. This work focused on the island territory of Turks and Caicos. Then in 2017, hurricanes, Irma and Maria pummeled islands in the Caribbean sea. The extremely powerful storm struck within a few weeks of each other. We realized that we had this unique opportunity recalls Donahue. His team quickly began documenting the hurricane's effects on caribbean animals. The feet of surviving lizards tended to have larger toe pads than those from before the hurricanes, they found that was a surprise. Donahue says it suggested hurricanes might play a role in natural selection. Blizzards that lived through a hurricane might be better adapted to making it through such storms. For instance, their toes might be grippy er hairs cover ridges of the animals, toe pads. Those hairs help lizards latch onto a tree or a perch in general, larger surface area means a stronger clinging force. However, it wasn't clear that extreme weather was pushing lizards to evolve better grips. Evolution can be a long, slow process and evidence of long term changes can be difficult to find. One approach is to study how a population changes over a very long time, but Donahue and his team took a different track. Caribbean islands each have their own history of hurricanes. Some have been hit frequently, others have been less. The researchers thought higher storm frequency might shape where lizards evolved to have better grips. The team studied 188 species of animals, their population stretched from florida to brazil from photos of museum specimens. The researchers sized up the lizard's toe pads. The researchers also reviewed hurricane data collected over the last 70 years. They came up with a measure for hurricane activity experienced by each species based on how many times it was hit by these severe storms. It seems that the hurricanes are immensely important, Donahue says hurricanes indeed appear to shape lizard diversity by helping them evolve clingy toes. The teams shared its findings and April 27 Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.