Lizards Undergo Rapid Evolution After Introduction To A New Home

Posted on 2 May, 2008 by Bog Brother

ScienceDaily (Apr. 18, 2008) — In 1971, biologists moved five adult pairs of Italian wall lizards from their home island of Pod Kopiste, in the South Adriatic Sea, to the neighboring island of Pod Mrcaru. Now, an international team of researchers has shown that introducing these small, green-backed lizards, Podarcis sicula, to a new environment caused them to undergo rapid and large-scale evolutionary changes.

TAKE THAT BEN STEIN…ER…INTELLIGENT DESIGN (whoah, those rhyme!)

Original Article: Lizards Undergo Rapid Evolution

20 thoughts on “Lizards Undergo Rapid Evolution After Introduction To A New Home”

Michael Peacock on 2 May, 2008 at 1:49 PM said:

Cool article – nice find, BB
elwedriddsche on 2 May, 2008 at 1:58 PM said:

Remember—IDiots have faith that’s impervious to mere trifles like fact to the contrary.
Last_Hussar on 2 May, 2008 at 4:11 PM said:

They are still the same lizards. Its not as if actual speciation has occured- they are just distant cousins. So its not evolution.

Just thought I’d say it first.
Bog Brother on 2 May, 2008 at 6:39 PM said:

They are still the same lizards. Its not as if actual speciation has occured- they are just distant cousins. So its not evolution.

Actually, if I’m reading the below definition from Talk Origins right, it is evolution.

One of the most respected evolutionary biologists has defined biological evolution as follows:

“In the broadest sense, evolution is merely change, and so is all-pervasive; galaxies, languages, and political systems all evolve. Biological evolution … is change in the properties of populations of organisms that transcend the lifetime of a single individual. The ontogeny of an individual is not considered evolution; individual organisms do not evolve. The changes in populations that are considered evolutionary are those that are inheritable via the genetic material from one generation to the next. Biological evolution may be slight or substantial; it embraces everything from slight changes in the proportion of different alleles within a population (such as those determining blood types) to the successive alterations that led from the earliest protoorganism to snails, bees, giraffes, and dandelions.”

– Douglas J. Futuyma in Evolutionary Biology, Sinauer Associates 1986
Last_Hussar on 2 May, 2008 at 9:06 PM said:

This is just Big Science saying anything they want to be evilution is evil-lution.
Bog Brother on 2 May, 2008 at 11:34 PM said:

Ah, eeeeeeeeeeevvvvviiiillllllution. I see. Sorry you were apparently swayed so strongly by Expelled the Movie LH
Last_Hussar on 3 May, 2008 at 5:52 AM said:

Well if that is the case it must be a totally wonderful movie, because I don’t think it will be opening in Britain, and STILL I HAVE BEEN SWAYED BY IT. Just more proof of Jesus’ love!

The arguments of Big Science are so weak that as far as I can see not one of the Faithful have posted a comment on the Expelled site saying “Actually, you have a point there”. That just shows how weak “Big Science” is.

If there was any basis in it, the Article “15 answers to Creationist nonsense” would have convinced Centurion68 on the message board that followed it.
Those who have Faith are totally unmoved, because they know the Truth. In fact scientists have said we should believe in God. Occams Razor says we should accept the simpliest explanation, and Believing in a Divine Creator is much easier to understand.
Bog Brother on 3 May, 2008 at 9:24 AM said:

Well if that is the case it must be a totally wonderful movie, because I don’t think it will be opening in Britain

Lucky!
zilch on 3 May, 2008 at 9:53 AM said:

If the lizards don’t turn into cats, it’s just adaptation, not evolution. Glory Gee to Beezuz!
Last_Hussar on 3 May, 2008 at 7:21 PM said:

If these lizards had really evolved, why are there still lizards on the other island.
Bog Brother on 4 May, 2008 at 7:22 AM said:

If these lizards had really evolved, why are there still lizards on the other island.

No no no no no! You’re asking the wrong question! It should be, “Where’s the peanut butter?”
Last_Hussar on 4 May, 2008 at 4:14 PM said:

If evolution was true you could open a jar of penut butter and find it had turned into lizards
Last_Hussar on 4 May, 2008 at 4:21 PM said:

I posted on the Expelled site about Yoko sueing, then I added this

Oh, and Hitler was Christian, his writings reveal that he wishes to revenge the cruxifiction on the Jews. The belt buckle on Nazi uniforms read “God with Us”, and prayer meetings before battle was common.

The next post was

Aneika Says:

April 30th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Ben,
Thank you so much for your courage and open mindedness.
Thank you for being one of the very few who doesn’t buy what the masses are trying to cram down our throats but instead encourages us to think for ourselves and to look at ALL possibilitites before forming an opinion.
Yes, we are heading toward another Nazi Germany….the signs are all around. Hopefully it’s not too late, but
at the very least, the more eyes opened, the more that can make a difference.
God BLESS You in a Mighty Way. I just love you for doing this!

Given what I wrote I couldn’t believe it so I posted this

Last Hussar Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
“Yes, we are heading toward another Nazi Germany”. Given my post directly above, either this is possibly the most cunning post ever, or the poster thinks irony means reminiscent of metal. Did you know over 50% of Americans get the question “Does the Earth revolve around the sun, or the sun around the earth?” wrong?

Paul- you are a molecular biologist[claim earlier in thread by an ID iot]. Good. So you will be fully conversent with the evolution of the TB virus to become drug resistent.

If you really are a scientist you know the rules. Provide a hypothesis which can be tested and falsified. Can it make predictions on creatures as yet undiscovered? “Godidit” isn’t an arguement for stuff we don’t understand. You will of course be only too pleased to explain what a theory is, in scientific terms, and that it is not a “Guess” as in “Scooby doo”. (Oh and that IS ‘fair use’).

Alternitavely perhaps you wish to explain why gravity ‘is only a theory’?

Note after 4 days it is still waiting moderation.
Bog Brother on 4 May, 2008 at 4:43 PM said:

Sounds more likely they might be debating weather or not to ban you/dump your post.
Last_Hussar on 4 May, 2008 at 5:03 PM said:

Creationists banning something that contradicts them? No, can can you possibly say this- it never crossed my mind. Are you saying I have been Expelled?
Bog Brother on 4 May, 2008 at 7:43 PM said:

Muhahaahahahaahhahahahahaahahahahahaaaa!

No.
elwedriddsche on 4 May, 2008 at 8:31 PM said:

If evolution was true you could open a jar of penut butter and find it had turned into lizards

Haven’t you paid attention in creationology 101? First the peanut butter turns into a banana, then into a lizard!
MisterMook on 4 May, 2008 at 10:27 PM said:

Because Peanut Butter is the perfect form designed to fit in the palm of the human hand?
zilch on 5 May, 2008 at 2:00 AM said:

Ewww, MisterMook. Even in my most dissipated bachelor days, I only ever put one finger into the peanut butter jar.

LH- I suspect that Aneika didn’t read your post. But it doesn’t matter one way or another- what counts for these people is being on the right side, not being right.
Last_Hussar on 5 May, 2008 at 1:16 PM said:

Zilch the fact these people are impervious to facts was painfully obvious from the board following the “15 Answers…”, with the ID iots posting claims in direct contradiction- especially ‘more and more scientists think evolution is wrong’. Its just the fact that after I wrote with a comment about nazis, an cretinist immediately said that the US was becoming like Nazi Germany (except Hitler won the original election without trickery)