In the late 1980s, Steven J. Gould proposed a thought experiment that focused on the roles of fate and chance in shaping biological diversity: if you could replay the tape of life, would you get the same result?
Now, in the face of rapid global ecosystem alteration, Gould’s question provides a framework for understanding how species respond to anthropogenic change.
Puerto Rican crested anole (Anols cristatellus). Photo: Dr. Kristin Winchell
As a result, wildlife are faced with novel and extreme environments posed by urban landscapes. We are studying the Puerto Rican crested anole (Anolis cristatellus) to understand how repeatable the process of urban adaptation can be in wild populations.
All Anole photos: Dr. Kristin Winchell
Urban anoles display greater heat tolerance to deal with the higher temperatures of city environments, called the urban heat island effect
Urban lizards have evolved longer limbs and larger toepads to improve their locomotion on metal and buildings
Selection of temperature-induced plasticity appears to play a critical roles in adaptation to urban temperatures
Populations across multiple cities have shown remarkably similar patterns of parallel evolution, finding similar solutions to urban challenges from whole-organism performance and single genetic changes.
A single candidate gene associated with protein maintenance appears to be a strong target of selection in urban environments and is associated with differences in thermal tolerance observed in cities.
As a result, wildlife will be faced more often with the novel and extreme environments of urban landscapes. Understanding how evolution allows species to persist (or not) alongside us in urban jungles is an important part of measuring the lasting biological impacts of human’s continued settlement and expansion into undisturbed areas in the coming decades.
