We have always been under the impression that evolution is the same across the board, and evolutionary biologist Jonathan Losos believed this explanation to be perfectly suited until he started researching the evolution of lizards called anoles. The anoles that Losos studied showed that they evolved independently on four different islands, with different traits and rates of evolution from island to island. This suggests that an evolutionary path is not predetermined, but rather, dependent on a number of individual factors.
Key Takeaways:
- Losos is an evolutionary biologist who studied anoles lizards on four different islands.
- Losos found that the evolution process for the lizards varied from island to island, suggesting that evolution is partially driven by surroundings.
- Another example of how evolution can vary among one species is the duck-billed platypus.
In other words, he argued that evolution wasn’t preprogrammed; rather, it depended on the environment and circumstances.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/2/17642446/jonathan-losos-improbable-destinies-evolution-biology
