Island life changed how Brazil’s Noronha skink reproduces, but the lizard’s strategy might be failing in a rapidly evolving world

The small Noronha skink (_Trachylepis atlantica_) is a lizard native to Africa that has evolved on Fernando de Noronha over millions of years: due to its isolation, the archipelago serves as a natural laboratory for evolution and is the subject of great scientific interest. Vinicius Gasparotto, CC BY

Visitors to the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, located about about 340 miles (545 kilometers) off the coast of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil, soon notice a small lizard. Seemingly ubiquitous, it roams among rocks, trails, and urbanized areas, approaching people and stealing food in plain sight when it can, and rarely flees.

This animal is the Noronha skink (Trachylepis atlantica), a species found exclusively in this archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.