As many know, this is the 150th anniversary of the publication
of On the Origin of Species. If I may be so bold, one of the
things that might distinguish our thinking about evolution in
the last 50 years from the first hundred years might be the
speed at which natural selection can operate. For a long time,
we thought of evolution taking long times: millions of years
would be needed to see the gradual accumulation of changes. We
learned in the past few decades that we can see the effects of
selection over the course of a few decades. There are a few fast
changing situations that should press the fast forward button on
natural selection. Invasions are one. That’s why they’re
invasions, not slow expansions. Boronow and Langkilde look at
how the invasion of red fire ants are affecting fence lizards.
The ants (Solenopsis invicta) are nasty little buggers. A dozen
will kill a fence lizard in less than a minute. You’d think that
would apply some pretty strong selection on the lizards if they
have any traits in the