Name: These Lizards Have Been Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors for 15 Million Years | Deep Look
Uploaded: 2020-10-13T21:01:30.000Z
Duration: 3 min 25 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Out here in California's serene central valley, there's a game underway.

Basic passive voice

One animal is locked in a perpetual, unwinnable cycle of rock paper scissors.

A three-way competition that's been raging for millennia.

Meet the side-blotched lizard, named for that patch of dark color on its side.

These lizards are all one species, but they have three different colors.

Each male lizard has a different trick for getting a mate that corresponds to their color.

Orange—These guys are the brutes, the meatheads.

They set up territories with lots of females and defend them aggressively.

Instead, they hide and then dart in, as often as they can, for a chance to mate with an unguarded female.

They put all their focus on just one female.

Researchers at UC Santa Cruz figured out the game.

So here's how it plays out, the rock paper scissors part:

Yellow beats orange, because oranges can't keep track of all those females.

Blue beats yellows, because blues are vigilant; yellows can't fool them.

Because they're monogamous, they aren't competitive with other blues.

They cooperate with each other, make friends, even warn their blue neighbors when intruders are nearby.

In fact, they've been known to risk their own lives for other blues.

Even Darwin didn't imagine this could happen.

You might think that over time, one color would prevail.

The whole species would gradually become blue.

Each color is kept in check by one of the other colors.

And if one of the colors starts to fall behind, the females bring it back in line.

Because they tend to prefer whatever color male is most rare that season.

So, if blues are getting the upper hand, females go for yellows or oranges.

If the females were to have a change of heart and stop going for the underdog, well, then, one color might win out, another might disappear entirely.

In other words, the species would evolve, change.

But for the last 15 million years, that hasn't happened.

It's an ancient game of roshambo, with no end in sight.

Hey! While you admire this other resident of California's central valley, consider subscribing to Deep Look.

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These Lizards Have Been Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors for 15 Million Years | Deep Look

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