Hurricanes may have made these lizards better huggers

Scientists usually think of natural selection as a slow process, unfolding over generations of incremental change. But, as a study published today in Nature suggests, sometimes this system can take a more rapid approach, especially after a sudden event like a hurricane. As these disasters become more frequent thanks to anthropogenic climate change, understanding how hurricanes affect the species who live in the places they make landfall is vital. This study, which was mainly the result of good timing, offers evidence that, for one family of lizards at least, hurricanes may initiate a rapid natural selection process for certain traits. Just four days before Hurricane Irma reached the Turks and Caicos in 2017, ecologist Colin Donihue completed a survey of the local anole species (Anolis scriptus, a family of lizards) on two remote islands.