Anoles Get a Grip Podcast By cover art

Anoles Get a Grip

Anoles Get a Grip

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Earlier, you heard how geckos have a sticky superpower. Microscopic hairs on their toes generate electromagnetic attraction to the surfaces they walk on, letting them run up glass and across ceilings. Anoles—common garden lizards in the southern U.S.—have less stick. They can dash up trees but can’t cling to the underside of things. Their electromagnetic attraction evolved separately from geckos’. In fact, they diverged on their family tree more than 200 million years ago, before either developed this capability. And both are still evolving. Evolution happens when individuals with certain characteristics can outcompete others in their species—for food, territory, or mates—allowing them to pass on those advantageous qualities. Recently, in the Caribbean, island anoles with larger toe pads gained an advantage when hurricanes literally blew away their competition: anoles with small toe pads and less staying power. The larger-toe-pad anoles held fast and lived to breed another day. And within just a few years, the entire population had evolved to have bigger, stickier feet. A few islands over, anoles in Puerto Rico also developed larger toe pads in response to urbanization. Their man-made climbing surfaces are slipperier than in the jungle, and the stickier anoles could better survive, thrive, and breed. Perhaps it’s this remarkable adaptability that has allowed anoles to stick around so long.
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