STRANGE ADAPTATIONS OF ANIMALS IN GALICIAN ISLANDS

In an interview to the Galician newspaper “Atlántico Diario”, Guillermo Velo-Antón talked about the strange peculiarities of the herpetological fauna of the Atlantic Islands National Park (Parque Nacional Illas Atlánticas).

A geographical isolation from the mainland, which took place approximately 8.000 years ago, led to different strategic adaptations of the amphibians and reptiles encountered in this region. Amongst the peculiar examples identified, there are: salamanders which have descendants in the ground and that make their living during daylight; lizards whose size on most of the islands is larger than that of their counterparts in all the Iberian Peninsula; and water snakes (Natrix maura) that live in intertidal areas and feed on fish in sea water instead on preying on amphibians in fresh water. These are some of the evolutionary modifications that the researcher is trying to understand.

To read the full interview, please, click in the link bellow

Darwin disfrutaría en las Islas Cíes | Atlántico Diario | Mar 1, 2015 (in Spanish only)