italian wall lizard
zooillogix | April 18, 2008Scientists release seemingly harmless Italian Wall Lizards on a deserted South Adriatic island in 1971... and return to find walking, talking, boccie playing super-lizards! That is the headline that would have been written if researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst had waited only a few more years.
In truth however, the scientists discovered that these non-indigenous lizards had undergone remarkable evolutionary changes in only 36 years as they adapted to the new habitat. Duncan Irschick, a biologist from UMass Amherst explained, "Striking differences in head size and shape…