Wednesday, November 5, 2014
It is known by many people the term invasive species. For a species to be invasive, it must be non-native to the region and experience rapid growth in that area. Most people do not understand the possible harm done by these evasive species in the grand scheme of natural selection and evolution. Invasive species can cause other native species to either adapt and change or go extinct completely.
In Florida, a type of lizard called a Brown Anole lizard moved from Cuba to southern Florida, in which they rapidly grew throughout. Now scientists are realizing that the native Green Anole lizards are adapting to different habits than before there similar brothers arrived.
Consistent research has yielded results that where green anole lizards used to stay on the ground in their environment, the introduction of the brown anole lizard has caused them to move to slightly higher grounds, spending more time up in trees and what not. I think this is very interesting because if this one instance of invasive species forcing habit change on a native species, the projected possible outcomes of this on a greater scale could be potentially dangerous. Unfortunately there is not much we can do to regulate or stop invasive species from coming because it deals with the climate change.
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