The fastest evolution, which took several months

Evolution usually takes a very long time. As dinosaurs evolved into modern birds, tens, if not millions of years have passed. People on a long evolutionary path also spent millions of years on development. However, science also knows examples of very fast evolution, which can take place in just one season or even in one weather phenomenon.

No luck with the weather

Even at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the American biologist Hermon Bampas noticed that as a result of a strong snowstorm, individual sparrows in the population became noticeably larger in order to better survive the next similar storm. However, since then it has been difficult to find other examples of fast evolution - precisely because of its speed. Only with the development of genetic testing have such findings begun to appear more often.

For example, lizards of the North American red-necked anolis species, living on the border of Mexico and Texas, have developed genetic tolerance to cold in just a few months after an unusually cold winter. These are thermophilic reptiles that appeared and developed in Cuba. They found their way to the mainland long ago, but a long period of very cold weather can really cause serious damage to their populations. That was the winter of 2013.

Instant evolution

Back in August 2013, researchers caught lizards of this species from five different places in Texas and placed them in cold stores to check the effect of the cold on their motor function. It turned out that individuals from southern Texas lost coordination at a temperature of 11 ° C, but those who were caught in the north of the state survived up to 6 degrees.

When winter came a few months later and the temperature dropped to lows that were not observed in the last 15 years, the researchers again caught several surviving lizards from all five places. An experiment in the refrigerator showed that the southernmost anoles have much greater frost resistance than their "countrymen" caught in the summer: now they were able to withstand cold up to 6 ° C. This experiment was also confirmed by changes in the genetic code of these reptiles: the population changed it in just one season.

By the way, this is not the only interesting fact of adaptation of anoles to the environment. So, lizards living near cities have more sticky paw surfaces than their cousins "village" brothers. Thus, they adapted to cling better to glass and metal.