Turks and Caicos Islands, Caribbean<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Extreme weather events have been increasing due to climate change and when hurricanes Irma and Maria battered the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2017, buildings were flattened, trees were uprooted and a community was left reeling. Devastating though it was, this catastrophe also created an unusual scientific opportunity.<\/p>\n

Researchers had just completed surveys of a local species of anole \u2013 a small, distant cousin of iguanas. They had intended to study the impacts of predation on lizards by non-native rats. Instead, they were now in the rare position to ask questions about hurricanes. Had any lizards survived the storms? If so, was the surviving population any different from the one they had just measured?<\/p>\n

In what must have felt like a case of scientific d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, the team surveyed the same lizards from six weeks earlier. It was immediately apparent that the surviving lizards \u2013 those that had managed to cling tightly to trees and shrubs for the duration of the two storms \u2013 had significantly larger toe pads and front legs, traits that enabled strong gripping power. But they also had short back legs, a mystery that could only be solved by observing lizard behaviour in high winds.<\/p>\n

The researchers decided to stir up their own hurricane using a leaf blower and the experiment was simple (and harmless): place a lizard on a vertical stick, turn up the blower, and watch. As the \u2018wind\u2019 increased to hurricane strength, the lizards\u2019 back legs slipped free and their bodies stretched out and flapped like flags. In that position, shorter back legs meant less surface area, and thus a reduction in drag that extended the length of time they could hold on. Lizards with that advantage \u2013 combined with the clinging strength of long front legs and big toe-pads \u2013 had a better chance of living through hurricanes. It was, in other words, survival of the fittest.<\/p>\n

Later studies confirmed that these traits were heritable and that similar patterns existed throughout the Caribbean, wherever strong hurricanes were frequent. Climate was driving lizard evolution in ways that could be measured not over hundreds or thousands of years, but in the course of a single field season.<\/p>\n

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Six species that have adapted to climate change<\/h2>\n

American pikas<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\nRocky Mountains, USA<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n