By Susan Milius
PORTLAND, Ore. — The recent evolution of camouflage among lizards in the powdery dunes of New Mexico’s White Sands National Monument can lead to some misunderstandings when some males choose to make love, not war.
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Since the dunes developed a few thousand years ago, a light-colored form of the normally dark-shaded eastern fence lizard (Sceloporus undulates) has arisen that blends in with the landscape.
The change in hue can produce confusion over sex-recognition signals, Jeanne Robertson of the University of Idaho in Moscow reported June 27 at the Evolution 2010 meeting. At least it did when she and an associate arranged encounters between pale White Sands lizards and their darker cousins from the area surrounding the dunes.