Data from: Hurricane effects on Neotropical lizards span geographic and phylogenetic scales

Extreme climate events such as droughts, cold snaps, and hurricanes can be
powerful agents of natural selection, producing acute selective pressures
very different from the everyday pressures acting on organisms. However,
it remains unknown whether these infrequent but severe disruptions are
quickly erased by quotidian selective forces, or whether they have the
potential to durably shape biodiversity patterns across regions and
clades. Here, we show that hurricanes have enduring evolutionary impacts
on the morphology of anoles, a diverse Neotropical lizard clade. We first
demonstrate a transgenerational effect of extreme selection on toepad area
for two populations struck by hurricanes in 2017. Given this short-term
effect of hurricanes, we then asked whether populations and species that
more frequently experienced hurricanes have larger toepads. Using 70 y of
historical hurricane data, we demonstrate that, indeed, toepad area
positively correlates with hurricane activity for both 12 island
populations of Anolis sagrei and
188 Anolis species throughout the Neotropics. Extreme
climate events are intensifying due to climate change and may represent
overlooked drivers of biogeographic and large-scale biodiversity patterns.