Galapagos Posted January 24, 2009 Report Share Posted January 24, 2009 ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2009) — Penn State Assistant Professor of Biology Tracy Langkilde has shown that native fence lizards in the southeastern United States are adapting to potentially fatal invasive fire-ant attacks by developing behaviors that enable them to escape from the ants, as well as by developing longer hind legs, which can increase the effectiveness of this behavior.Native U.S. Lizards Are Evolving To Escape Attacks By Fire Ants Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted January 24, 2009 Report Share Posted January 24, 2009 I wonder if this behavior was front loaded into the lizards genome? :friday: Maybe 4 billion years ago the genes to allow a fence lizard to get away from fire ants were front loaded into the genetic structure of the first microbe? Yeah, that's the ticket :shrug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galapagos Posted January 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2009 I wonder if this behavior was front loaded into the lizards genome? :friday: Maybe 4 billion years ago the genes to allow a fence lizard to get away from fire ants were front loaded into the genetic structure of the first microbe? Yeah, that's the ticket :shrug: Utter nonsense! Obviously this adaptation is best explained by ambiguous cell-magic! On a serious note, I have never even heard of a fence lizard before. Here in FL we only have a few different species of anole... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted January 24, 2009 Report Share Posted January 24, 2009 I'm not sure about Florida but I grew up In West Virginia and fence lizards were everywhere, I raised them from eggs several times. Caught them all the time. Here In NC were I live now we have several species of lizards just in my yard, anoles, five lined skinks, ground skinks, red headed skinks and Glass snakes which are really leg less skinks. Glass snakes are quite large and probably the longest and largest lizard in the USA but most people don't consider them lizards because the look so much like snakes. They are an example of convergent evolution. I hadn't considered the problems native lizards might have in dealing with fire ants. Fire ants are thick around here, my yard is free of them because the water table is so high but they are all over the side of roads and in fields. Step in a nest of them and they will eat you up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galapagos Posted January 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2009 Now that I think about it, I've spotted quite a few different lizards round these parts. Tropical geckos, various lined skinks, and some kind of pink salamanders, but never any fence lizards or glass snakes. There are also some local spots where people have introduced iguanas that maintain a small but steady population year-round. Mostly its just a bunch of different anoles though, and mostly the brown ones and not the green ones.Also, apparently some species of basilisks were introduced to south Fl at some point, I might have to snoop around for one next time I head south.. Cool page I dug up with FL lizards: Native Florida LizardsAnole Photos Florida GeorgiaNon-native Florida Lizards The weirdest reptile I think I've seen here would have to be blind snakes. My friend had a dog that used to go dig them up on occasion.. They look like giant alien worms, definitely a bit of convergence going on there I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted January 25, 2009 Report Share Posted January 25, 2009 Great site for pictures! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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