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In 2016, amidst the white dunes of Guadalupe Mountains National Park, in West Texas, a herpetologist Drew Dittmer discovered lesser earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata) as white as the sands themselves. And as scientists look more closely at these creatures, they’re gaining insight into the mechanisms that drive the diversity of life on Earth.
Many lizards can change hues to match terrain. But Dittmer’s find wasn’t a matter of such “plasticity.” The population of “blanched” lizards he’d discovered were genetically adapted to this specific niche.
Dittmer had reason to suspect they might exist. There are blanched versions of three lizard species at New Mexico’s White Sands — hiptail and fence lizards, as well as lesser earless lizards.
And with his discovery, Dittmer reached out to the Rosenblum Lab, at the University of California-Berkeley, which has done pathbreaking research on those white lizards.
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