Re: Anoles

Greg Billock (billgr@cco.caltech.edu)
Fri, 16 Jan 1998 15:00:20 -0800 (PST)

Kevin,

> Also, as stated in the article, they don't know yet if the changes
> that occurred are genetic in origin.

It would be interesting if it were...

> What I assume is news worthy is that the lizards underwent such a
> change so quickly. Indeed the article mentions this. If this is in fact
> evolution in action, to anyone's knowledge, would this be the first
> event of its kind that has been observed? I would think not.
> Perhaps someone has read about this in a science journal . . .

No, this isn't the first event like it. You may be interested in
reading _The Beak of the Finch_, which won the Pulitzer (or something)
prize for nonfiction a couple of years back. As such, it is still
on the shelves in many stores. You'll discover that, although, thin
until recently, there are a growing number of studies like this, and
they're finding things that are very interesting....finches on the
Galapagos, guppies in South America.... :-)

-Greg