The Evolution of Diet and Morphology in Insular Lizards: Insights from a Replicated Island Introduction Experiment.

Resource-limited environments may drive the rapid evolution of phenotypic traits and ecological preferences optimizing the exploitation of resources. Very small islands are often characterized by reduced food availability, seasonal fluctuations in resources and strong unpredictability. These features may drive the evolution of phenotypic traits such as high bite forces, allowing animals to exploit a wider variety of the available resources.

Can extreme climatic events induce shifts in adaptive potential? A conceptual framework and empirical test with Anolis lizards.

Multivariate adaptation to climatic shifts may be limited by trait integration that causes genetic variation to be low in the direction of selection. However, strong episodes of selection induced by extreme climatic pressures may facilitate future population-wide responses if selection reduces trait integration and increases adaptive potential (i.e.

Chromosome-scale genome assembly of the brown anole (Anolis sagrei), an emerging model species.

Rapid technological improvements are democratizing access to high quality, chromosome-scale genome assemblies. No longer the domain of only the most highly studied model organisms, now non-traditional and emerging model species can be genome-enabled using a combination of sequencing technologies and assembly software. Consequently, old ideas built on sparse sampling across the tree of life have recently been amended in the face of genomic data drawn from a growing number of high-quality reference genomes.

When adaptive radiations collide: Different evolutionary trajectories between and within island and mainland lizard clades.

Oceanic islands are known as test tubes of evolution. Isolated and colonized by relatively few species, islands are home to many of nature's most renowned radiations from the finches of the Galápagos to the silverswords of the Hawaiian Islands. Despite the evolutionary exuberance of insular life, island occupation has long been thought to be irreversible.

Adaptive Evolution in Cities: Progress and Misconceptions.

Current narratives suggest that urban adaptation - the adaptive evolution of organisms to cities - is pervasive across taxa and cities. However, in reviewing hundreds of studies, we find only six comprehensive examples of species adaptively evolving to urbanization. We discuss the utility and shortcomings of methods for studying urban adaptation.

Population increase and changes in behavior and morphology in the Critically Endangered Redonda ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus) following the successful removal of alien rats and goats.

Redonda is a small volcanic Caribbean island that is home to at least 4 endemic lizard species, including the Critically Endangered ground lizard (Pholidoscelis atratus). Black rats (Rattus rattus) and domestic goats (Capra hircus) were introduced to the island at some time after its discovery by Europeans in the late 1500s. They had a devastating effect on the island, resulting in the loss of nearly all trees and most of the ground vegetation.

An extreme cold event leads to community-wide convergence in lower temperature tolerance in a lizard community.

Extreme climate events are predicted to increase in frequency and severity due to contemporary climate change. Recent studies have documented the evolutionary impacts of extreme events on single species, but no studies have yet investigated whether such events can drive community-wide patterns of trait shifts. On 22 January 2020, subtropical south Florida experienced an extreme cold episode during which air temperatures dropped below the lower thermal limit of resident lizard populations.

Urban biodiversity management using evolutionary tools.

Cities are fully functioning ecosystems and are home to no-analogue communities of species that interact with each other and which are subject to novel urban stressors. As such, biodiversity can evolve in response to these new urban conditions, making urban species a moving target for conservation and management efforts. An evolving urban biodiversity necessitates integrating evolutionary insights into management for these efforts to be successful in a dynamic urban milieu.

Hurricane effects on Neotropical lizards span geographic and phylogenetic scales.

Extreme climate events such as droughts, cold snaps, and hurricanes can be powerful agents of natural selection, producing acute selective pressures very different from the everyday pressures acting on organisms. However, it remains unknown whether these infrequent but severe disruptions are quickly erased by quotidian selective forces, or whether they have the potential to durably shape biodiversity patterns across regions and clades. Here, we show that hurricanes have enduring evolutionary impacts on the morphology of anoles, a diverse Neotropical lizard clade.

Rapid and repeated divergence of animal chemical signals in an island introduction experiment.

Studies of animal communication have documented myriad rapid, context-dependent changes in visual and acoustic signal design. In contrast, relatively little is known about the capacity of vertebrate chemical signals to rapidly respond, either plastically or deterministically, to changes in context. Four years following an experimental introduction of lizards to replicate experimental islets, we aimed to determine if chemical signal design of the experimental populations differed from that of the source population.

Habitat shapes the thermoregulation of Mediterranean lizards introduced to replicate experimental islets.

Both environmental temperatures and spatial heterogeneity can profoundly affect the biology of ectotherms. In lizards, thermoregulation may show high plasticity and may respond to environmental shifts. In the context of global climate change, lizards showing plastic thermoregulatory responses may be favored.

Hurricane-induced selection on the morphology of an island lizard.

Hurricanes are catastrophically destructive. Beyond their toll on human life and livelihoods, hurricanes have tremendous and often long-lasting effects on ecological systems. Despite many examples of mass mortality events following hurricanes, hurricane-induced natural selection has not previously been demonstrated.

Aegean wall lizards switch foraging modes, diet, and morphology in a human-built environment.

Foraging mode is a functional trait with cascading impacts on ecological communities. The foraging syndrome hypothesis posits a suite of concurrent traits that vary with foraging mode; however, comparative studies testing this hypothesis are typically interspecific. While foraging modes are often considered typological for a species when predicting foraging-related traits or mode-specific cascading impacts, intraspecific mode switching has been documented in some lizards.

Adaptive evolution in urban ecosystems.

Urban ecologists have demonstrated that cities are functioning ecosystems. It follows then that species living in these contexts should participate in and experience the same suite of biological processes, including evolution, that have occupied scientists for centuries in more "natural" contexts. In fact, urban ecosystems with myriad novel contexts, pressures, and species rosters provide unprecedentedly potent evolutionary stimuli.