These Lizards Have Been Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors for 15 Million Years
From Deep Look
3 min4th5th6thScience
Summary
Male side-blotched lizards come in three throat colors, and each color has its own strategy -- like rock, paper, scissors, no single one always wins. Deep Look explores how these inherited differences keep the game going.
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
These lizards inherit one of three throat colors, and each color out-competes one of the others but loses to the third. Because no single trait always wins, all three keep getting passed on.
- What are the three types of male lizards, and how do they differ?
- Why doesn't one color simply take over the whole population?
- How is this like a game of rock-paper-scissors?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: trait, inherit, variation, advantage.
Try it: Play rock-paper-scissors a few rounds. Write why, like the lizards, no single choice always wins.