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Reproductive Isolation and Speciation in Lizards

Topic

  • Anatomy & Physiology
  • Animal Behavior
  • Evolution
  • Natural Selection
  • Speciation

Resource Type

  • Videos
  • Animations

Level

High School — GeneralHigh School — AP/IBCollege

Duration

00:02:38
Saved By
24 Users
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Description

This animation shows how a single species can give rise to many different species with distinct traits, using anole lizards as an example.

The anole lizards of the Caribbean Islands represent a group of about 150 closely related species, most of which evolved within the past 50 million years from a single colonizing species on each island. The animation illustrates different processes — including geographic isolation, reproductive isolation, and adaptation to different environments — that have played a role in anole speciation.

Depending on students’ background, it may be helpful to pause the animation at various points to discuss different parts of the speciation process.

Key Terms

Anolis, anole, dewlap, evolution, natural selection, niche, population, species, trait

Terms of Use

The resource is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. No rights are granted to use HHMI’s or BioInteractive’s names or logos independent from this Resource or in any derivative works.

Accessibility Level (WCAG compliance)

Video files meet criteria.

Version History

Date Published 03.11.14

Materials

HD (MP4) 42 MB
HD (WMV) 82 MB
SD (MP4) 22 MB
SD (WMV) 21 MB
Transcript (PDF) 11 KB

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