It only changed the food nature in only 40 years. What animal has evolved so fast?Italian wall lizard

It is not unusual in the animal world to change to the vegetarian or from the vegetarian or to the vegetarian, but this changes in this food usually require a long period of time, especially when the body structure changes. Millions of years of evolution.

But there is only less than 40 years to complete it. It is the Italian wall lizard. Italian wall lizard, you may not be familiar with this name, but the relationship between animals and humans is very close, because in Europe, it has the same status as fruit flies and mice, and it is also an important experimental object of scientific researchers. Now we all know that the Italian wall lizard is a typical vegetarian lizard, but it still eats meat 40 years ago. Its evolutionary speed is surprising. How does it evolve? This starts from the 1970s.

In 1971, the Biologist at the University of Massachusetts of the United States brought 5 pairs of Italian wall lizards to the island of Port Macaru in the southern part of the Adalia Sea to prepare to study here.

However, further research has not yet begun, and a war that lasted more than 20 years broke out, which is the famous Croatian independence war, so the research team failed to log in to this island again. It was not until the beginning of the 21st century that the researchers were able to land on the island again, but everyone did not have the hope of finding these lizards again. However, the scene on the island made everyone unexpected. However, the researchers did not realize that these lizards were the Italian wall lizards placed here 40 years ago. One is because there are other types of lizards on this island. The other is because of the appearance of these Italian wall lizards. obvious changes.

Compared with 40 years ago, the hind legs of these lizards were significantly shorter, but through genetic analysis, researchers quickly determined that they were the Italian wall lizards.

Why did the appearance of these lizards have changed so much in just 40 years? Because their food nature has changed. The previous Italian wall lizard was a typical meat lizard. In their recipes, the meat occupied more than 93%of the share. Because a kind of animal changes in food, it takes a long time, especially it is more difficult to turn from meat to vegetarian food. In the animal world, carnivores occupy the top of the food chain, but from the perspective of evolution, vegetarian animals are more advanced. why? Because of the stronger survivability.

The surface of the meat is mighty, but it is extremely difficult to survive because it is difficult to obtain food. Even the top hunter and cheetah on the grassland, its hunting success is less than 20%.

But herbs are different, and foods are everywhere, so they are more likely to adapt to changes in the environment. However, "eating grass" is a kind of ability, because the process of turning "grass" into energy is much more difficult than turning "meat" into energy, so it is not that carnivores do not like to be vegetarian, but they can’t be vegetarian and there is no way to eat vegetarian. Digestive and obtain sufficient nutrition from it. Even the old -fashioned herbivores, such as cattle and sheep, are not enough to rely on their own digestive ability. They also need to use the power of microorganisms. Therefore Various digestive bacteria survival and reproduction in the body.

It is difficult for ordinary carnivorous animals to evolve into herbivores, and it is even more difficult for lizards to be climbing animals, but they only need 40 years, and they have changed their body structure.

In order to be able to obtain nutrition from the plants, the Italian wall lizard has produced a new intestinal structure -back -to -blind petals, which allows it to stay in the body for a longer time, so the intestinal bacteria have sufficient time Fermented plants to convert it into the nutrients needed for the body. As a small crawling animal, the Italian wall lizard is indeed much faster than most mammals, but 40 years can breed 20 or 30 generations, and in the 2030 generations, the change of food transformation has been completed. And produced changes in the body structure, which is not compatible with the traditional evolutionary theory.

The Italian wall lizard after being vegetarian has no need for hunting, so the hind legs gradually become shorter, which is the fundamental reason for their appearance.

Since the Italian wall lizard can quickly change the food in order to adapt to the environment, can it change back quickly? In 2010, the researchers conducted relevant experiments. In 15 weeks, they only provided meat to these lizards. As a result, their food properties really changed again. What is even more surprising is that the blind petals in their intestine also quickly degraded. Essence This experimental result shows that the traditional evolutionary theory is not perfect. "Fast evolution" may not be a rare special case. For some creatures, they have the ability to surpass other animals. For a strong environmental adaptation ability.

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