Virtual Lab

Lizard Evolution Virtual Lab Student Handout

LIZARD EVOLUTION VIRTUAL LAB

Answer the following questions as you finish each module of the virtual lab or as a final assessment
after completing the entire virtual lab.

Module 1: Ecomorphs
1. At the beginning of the virtual lab, you were asked to sort eight lizards into categories. What
criteria did you initially use to make your groups? Did you revise your criteria later? Why?

The first groups I made were simply based on if they said Puerto rico or Hispaniola. After going
through the module, I changed and made two groups based off of long and short legs. This was
because I learned more about ecomorphs and classifying them together.

2. An adaptation is a structure or function that is common in a population because it enhances the

ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. Provide one example and an
explanation of one adaptation in the Anolis lizards.

An example of an adaptation is the large toepads of the Trunk-crown (canopy) anole covered
with microscopic hair-like structures. The reason it evolved with this certain adaptation is
because its part of the habitat high in the trees requires these long toepads to grip onto the
smooth surface of leaves, so they’re less likely to fall off.

3. Provide one evolutionary explanation for why lizards living in the same part of the habitat (i.e.,
grass) would have similar characteristics.

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Lizard Evolution Virtual Lab Student Handout

A reason why lizards living in the same part of the habitat would have similar characteristics is
that environment plays a big part in evolution. So lizards living in the same parts would be
exposed to the same selection pressures and would adapt similarly to most effectively live in
that part of the habitat.

4. What is an ecomorph? Provide one example from the virtual lab.

Ecomorphs are groups of lizards that occupy different ecological niches and have different
shapes or morphologies. Many different species of anoles belong to each ecomorph group. You
can distinguish lizards in different ecomorph groups according to multiple traits—such as
relative tail length, relative hindlimb length, or number of toepad lamellae. For example, we
could conclude that a lizard is in the same group as a twig anole because it has short legs.
5. How is an ecomorph different from a species?

An ecomorph is different from a species because It only classifies the organism as having similar
body types and habitats. Species have other characteristics such as color or look.

6. Explain how a particular body feature of one of the lizard ecomorphs from the virtual lab is an
adaptation to their particular niche.

The short legs of the twig anoles are an adaptation to make them better at scurrying along small
twigs and branches. This is an adaptation to their particular niche because they live among twigs
and needed to adapt those short legs to survive.

Module 2: Phylogeny
1. In module 1, you identified which species of lizards were most similar to one another based on
relative limb length and toe pad size. In this module, you determined which lizards are more
similar to one another based on what type of information?

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Lizard Evolution Virtual Lab Student Handout

2. Are the species of lizard that are more similar to one another according to body type also more
closely related based on the results obtained in this module? Explain your answer.

No, the same types of anoles evolved independently on each of the islands. Which means that
although there are exceptions, lizards from the same island are more closely related to one
another than to lizards with the same body type on another island.

3. The figures below show two phylogenetic trees similar to the one you constructed in the virtual
lab but with more lizards. The trees below show the evolutionary relationships among species
from four ecomorphs from the four
largest Caribbean islands.

Figure 1. Phylogeny of anole lizards on four of

the major Caribbean islands color-coded
according to geographical distribution. Light
dotted line, Puerto Rico; small dashed line,
Cuba; large dashed line, Hispaniola; and solid
line, Jamaica.

Figure 2. Phylogeny of anole lizards in the

four major Caribbean islands colored in
according to ecomorph. Light dotted line,
twig; small dashed line, trunk-ground; large
dashed line, trunk-crown; solid line, grassbus.

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Lizard Evolution Virtual Lab Student Handout

015
What conclusion can you draw about the evolution of the Anolis lizards based on these figures?

We can tell that similar adaptations evolved on different islands. This is an example of convergent
evolution. Because the groups of lizards independently evolved similar traits from having to adapt to
similar environments. We can also see that a lot of the anoles evolved from a common ancestor.

4. What is convergent evolution? Use evidence from the trees to explain how the Anolis lizards are
an example of this concept.
Convergent evolution is when groups of lizards independently evolve similar traits as a result of
needing to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches. We can see that on this chart
because on each of the four islands, the same species have evolved. We see twig, trunk-ground,
trunk-crown, and. Grass anoles on each of the islands in the figure.

Module 3: Experimental Data

1. In Dr. Losos’s experiment, why was it important that the experimental islands lacked lizards?

It was important that these islands lacked lizards so they could see exactly which lizards were a
product of the lizards they brought over.

2. Dr. Losos’s data suggest that after only a few generations, the lizards on the experimental
islands have shorter legs on average than the lizards on the larger island. Explain how the data
you collected either supports or does not support this claim.

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Lizard Evolution Virtual Lab Student Handout

The data I found supports this claim. I found that on average the lizards from Iron Cay seem to
have longer legs than the lizards living on the experimental island. You can prove this to be true
because the sample means and 2 SEMS do not overlap. But to know if this is true for all the
lizards on Iron Cay or the experimental island, a larger sample would be necessary to study.

3. Based on what you know about the experimental islands and the lizards that were placed on
these islands, explain how and why the average leg length of the population might change over
time. Include the concept of natural selection in your discussion.

The average leg length of the population may change over time due to different selective
pressure. For the lizards on Iron Cay, they adapted longer legs so that they could grip onto
trunks of trees. Once they were moved to the new island, there was no trees and only bushes
low to the ground. So they no longer needed the long legs to grip onto trunks and needed a new
adaptation to survive. Then as they were breeding, every time the longer legs would get bred
out because shorter legs bring more of an advantage to living on the island. This is an obvious
form of natural selection, as they kept breeding out the trait that left them at a disadvantage.

4. If the population from one of the experimental islands were reintroduced on the original island,
do you predict that lizards from the two populations would still mate and reproduce? Justify
your answer with scientific arguments.

I predict that the lizards from the two populations would not reproduce. For one, both populations
would be living in different parts of the habitat, with the longer legged lizards being on the
trunks and the shorter legged lizards living closer to the ground. In addition, the longer leg
lizards would not want to mate with the experimental island lizards because it wouldn’t make

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Lizard Evolution Virtual Lab Student Handout

sense in terms of natural selection. Mating with the experimental lizards would not be mating
for the best traits that aid in living on the trunks of Iron Cay. The shorter legs bring no
advantage , therefore there is no benefit to mating with them. The Iron Cay lizards mate with
others of their kind that have the long legs so that their offspring will also have longer legs that
are adapted to living on the trunks of trees.

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Module 4: Dewlap Colors

1. Anolis cristatellus and A. cooki are both trunk-ground anoles that live on Puerto Rico. A.
cristatellus lives in a shady, forest environment, while A. cooki lives in an open, sunny
environment. What is an adaptive explanation for why the dewlap of one species evolved to be
brighter and that of another species darker?

Since the males anoles use dewlaps to attract females, it’s important that females can easily see
them in the environment they live in. Thus, the species that lives in shady environments have
brighter dewlaps and species living in sunnier environments have darker dewlaps because
they’re easier to see.

2. From the bar graph generated in the virtual lab (see below), how do the dewlap colors of the
two species compare?

From this graph, we can see that the color of A.cristatellus is almost twice as bright as that of
A.cook, so we can conclude the A.cristatellus lives in a shadier environment.

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3. How would you determine whether the difference between the two populations is statistically
significant?

To determine whether the difference between the populations is statistically significant, you
would need to use a statistical test such as the student-t test.

4. If a species of anoles with dark dewlaps colonized a heavily forested island, predict what would
happen over time to the color of the dewlap. Using your knowledge of natural selection and
genetics, explain your prediction.

Change doesn’t happen at an individual level, so the dewlaps of the anoles colonizing the island
won’t become brighter. But, over many generations of selecting mates with brighter dewlaps,
the dewlaps of that species will be brighter. This is an example of natural selection and choosing
the best traits to breed out.

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Extension Questions

1. To minimize interspecific competition, organisms often divide the limited available resources in
an area, a concept called “resource partitioning.” As an example of this concept, the figure
below illustrates how different species of warblers utilize different portions of an individual tree.

Figure 3. Different species of North

American warblers live in different
parts of the same trees. The
shaded areas indicate the habitats
each warbler species occupies.

Explain how the different species of anoles on an island demonstrate “resource partitioning”
similar to the warblers in the figure.

The different anoles demonstrate resource partitioning by taking up different portions of their
habitat. For example, lizards with brighter dewlaps will adapt to a dimly lit portion of the
environment while the ones with darker dewlaps will find bright areas to minimize competition.

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Lizard Evolution Virtual Lab Student Handout

The anoles also live in different parts of trees, as some have adapted to twigs, trunks, tree
canopies, and so on. This means they’re not depleting resources in one area.

3. Explain how resource partitioning can promote long-term coexistence of competing species,
thus increasing biodiversity.

By resource partitioning, the species aren’t competing for food so they all have a chance of survival.
This then allows them to keep more of their species alive and breed, which increases
biodiversity.

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