Lizard feet are getting longer because of ants

To coexist with fire ants, a lizard in southeastern America increased its leg length to run faster. They also formed reflexes when they saw ants.

Within a minute, 12 fire ants can kill a green belly lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) with an average body length of 8 cm. Tracy Langkilde, a biologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said that fire ants "knocked out" many animals from their habitats.

But Tracy noticed that some green belly lizards knew how to run away when ants approached. She thought it was an evolutionary self-defense behavior.

Fire ants were accidentally brought into the United States from South America in the 30s. Perhaps the ships helped them to new lands. Ants have no enemies in nature. So the scientific community believes that if people do not take measures to control the number of ants, they will account for more than half of the land area on the globe.

A green belly lizard in America.Photo: photo.net.

The length of the leg is proportional to the speed of the lizard. Tracy learns about adult lizards in many places. She noticed in places where lizards and fire ants lived together, the lizard's legs were longer and they were more shy. In a rural area without fire ants in the state of Arkansas, only nearly half of the green belly lizards ran away when fire ants approached, while most remained still and waited for ants to leave.

When studying baby lizards, Tracy found that most of the children in the area with fire ants have longer legs right from birth.

According to Tracy, the increase in leg length and reflexes seen by ants are two genetic characteristics that are prioritized to pass on to the next generation because it allows lizards to increase their chances of surviving with ants. Many other experts argue that this new finding is a hope for species facing many changes in their environment due to climate warming.