How Hurricanes DRIVE Evolution in these Island Lizards

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How are wildlife affected by natural disasters? How are lizards affected by hurricanes? Do disasters influence the evolution of biodiversity?

These are all questions i've had surrounding Natural Disasters. In this series, "Natural Disasters and Wildlife", we are investigating natural disasters through an evo-evolutionary lens. We'll cover the concepts supporting the science, the impacts of new findings, and how our changing planet continues to surprise us in new and interesting ways.

This video covers the initial research from Donihue et al 2018, titled "Hurricane-induced selection on the morphology of an island lizard" You can find their research here: https://colindonihue.com/wp-content/u.... I cover some of the other research in this newsletter here: https://learnadv.com/newsletter/hurri...

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00:00 - Introduction
00:35 - What is described in Donihue et al. 2018?
01:41 - What do we expect to occur after disturbance?
05:25 - Regular cycles and Pulse Theory
06:30 - Why are Anole Toe-Pads so Sticky?
07:04 - How did the hurricanes influence lizards?
07:55 - How do we expect selection to act on neutral traits?
10:00 - How do we expect selection to act on non-neutral traits?
11:55 - Why are the toe pads larger after the hurricane?
13:05 - It goes one layer deeper....
15:50 - Why is this an evolutionary ratchet?
17:10 - More Research on Natural Disasters