This Diminutive Reptile Plays Rock-Paper-Scissors
The New York Times••general
Key Points:
- Rock-paper-scissors is a globally recognized game with many cultural variations, such as Japan's janken and Indonesia's earwig-man-elephant, each with unique symbolic gestures and rules.
- The game extends beyond humans, with animals evolving similar cyclical strategies to compete for survival and reproduction, effectively playing a biological version of rock-paper-scissors.
- A study published in Science highlights how these cyclical interactions contribute to biodiversity, using the example of side-blotched lizards in California, which exhibit three throat colors linked to distinct mating behaviors.
- The three male lizard types—orange, blue, and yellow—engage in a dynamic cycle of competition where orange males aggressively control territory and females, often overpowering blue males
