Mountains, Lizards, and the Battle with Temperature

Please do consider a donation - all kindnesses, small or large, go a long way in helping us deliver our nature outreach programme.

This is an online event only. The Zoom link will be sent out a couple of hours before the start of the lecture.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In this talk, Jhan Salazar explores how anole lizards adapt to the extreme temperature variations found in Neotropical mountains. Using climatic and distribution data, he investigated how thermal tolerance evolves across elevations, both within and between species. His research shows that highland species have repeatedly evolved lower critical thermal limits, highlighting strong selective pressures in cold environments. Interestingly, different anole clades exhibit convergence in their thermal limits, suggesting that similar environmental challenges lead to predictable evolutionary outcomes.

Jhan also examined whether shifts from low to high elevations drive increased diversification and speciation rates. While highland and lowland species follow distinct evolutionary trajectories, factors like climatic heterogeneity, phylogenetic history, and ecological specialization all influence patterns of adaptation. Understanding how species respond to elevation-related climate pressures provides key insights into biodiversity and evolutionary processes in complex mountainous landscapes.

Jhan is a sixth-year graduate student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, working in Dr. Jonathan Losos' lab. Originally from Puerto Tejada, Colombia, he earned his B.S. in Biology from Universidad Icesi in 2018. Jhan's research explores how anole lizards adapt to different elevations in the Colombian Andes. He integrates physiological experiments, field data, and computational approaches to investigate thermal adaptation, niche evolution, and the impacts of climate on species distributions.

These findings were recently published in the Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean Society as part of our Special Issue “A Global Perspective on Adaptive Radiation”. The Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean Society is a fully-open access journal publishing all aspects of evolutionary biology, from genetics, to systematics and behaviour.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you'd like to stay updated about our events programme, and other news, please subscribe to our monthly newsletter here.

Terms and Conditions.