Today’s Video of the Day from the National Science Foundation reveals that lizards could provide new insight into how species have evolved over centuries. Understanding how environmental changes have affected animals in the past can help predict how they will be affected in the future.
A research team led by Dr. Melissa Kemp, a paleobiologist at the University of Texas at Austin, is studying lizards to find out more about a process called “adaptive radiation,” or how organisms evolve to adapt to changing environments. The research is focused on lizards in the Caribbean.
“If we can gain any insights from past instances of extinction, it might be informative of what communities might look like in the future as these communities undergo future environmental changes,” Dr. Kemp said in a profile piece by UT Austin.
Image/ Video Credit: National Science Foundation/ UT Austin
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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer