"Natural Selection's Dual Role: Driving Evolution and Preserving Stability"

A multigenerational study of four lizard species has provided insights into the "paradox of stasis" in evolutionary biology, where traits appear stable over long periods despite variability in the short term. The research, led by James Stroud, observed that while individual generations of lizards showed fluctuating traits due to directional selection, these variations averaged out to stasis over multiple generations. This study, which meticulously tracked and measured thousands of individual lizards over three years, suggests that short-term variability can lead to long-term stability in species, offering a potential resolution to the paradox of stasis.