evolution

Researchers found that introduced populations of a lizard in five different countries can be traced back to the Sunshine State.

Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey/SOFIAGenetic studies performed by Washington University biologists shows that the sunshine State is the exporter of brown lizards to other countries.A new study headed by biologists at Washington University in St. Louis shows that Florida is an exporter of more than just fruit and star athletes. Studying genetic variation in the common brown lizard, Anolis sagrei, the researchers found that introduced populations of the lizard in five different countries can be traced back to the Sunshine State as their site of export.

BlankCarrine Blank, Ph.D. , assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences, has found that the currently accepted dates for the appearance of oxygen-producing bacteria and sulfur-producing bacteria on the early earth are not correct. She believes that these bacteria appeared on earth much later than is now believed.

Courtesy photoBiologists at Washington University in St. Louis studying groups of lizards have proposed a general pattern among groups in the timing of evolutionary diversification.Many scientists believe that each group of living things evolves in its own idiosyncratic manner. But now biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have proposed a general pattern among groups in the timing of evolutionary diversification.

Photo by David Kilper/WUSTL PhotoGrendel is a Solomon Islands Prehensile Tailed Skink.Biologists at Washington University in St. Louis have documented unprecedented levels of speciation and diversification in Caribbean anolis lizards. The discovery is completely unexpected and challenges the way evolutionary biologists think of evolution.