Scientists have figured out how geckos conquered America
Herpetologists from the United States conducted genetic analysis, studied the routes of the slave trade and found out how geckos moved from Africa to America and settled in different regions, Gazeta.Ru reports, citing a study published in the Royal Society Open Science journal.
According to scientists, it was enough for one individual to get on the ship for the geckos to massively spread across the United States. In the future, experts hope to learn with the help of new data more about the evolution of invasive species – animals that are not endemic to a particular place.
House geckos, Hemidactylus mabouia, are particularly well spread throughout the United States. The homeland of the reptile is southern Africa, and today they do well in North, Central and South America, as well as in the Caribbean. This is a feature of this species, since other representatives of geckos have small habitats.
The connection between the spread of geckos and the transatlantic slave trade was noticed back in the twentieth century, but scientists did not have the opportunity to study this topic in detail. Using modern technology, specialists have reconstructed the evolutionary history of house geckos by examining tissue samples from individuals that are stored in museums and sequencing their genomes.
It became known that only one subspecies of house geckos – Hemidactylus mabouia sensu stricto – spread widely in the new territory. Scientists believe this was due to the lack of competition from local geckos.
Moscow State University student Platon Yushchenko discovered a previously unknown species of gecko. This creature lives in Thailand and has an unusual leopard skin. They are nocturnal and the coloration helps them stay undetected on tree trunks or in thickets.
