Why did light coloration evolve?
Animals become better adapted to their environment by a process called natural selection, in which traits that increase an individuals reproductive success by improving its fit to the environment will tend to spread in the population. Light coloration could evolve through natural selection in dune field animals if individuals with light-coloration genes reproduced more than individuals with dark-coloration genes. Consider the case of a brownish female lizard moving from the brownish desert into the white dunes. If she has babies, those babies are likely to have slightly different skin colors, just like human siblings have slightly different skin and hair colors. The lighter-colored babies would blend in better with the white sand and therefore be less likely to end up as lunch for a roadrunner or another predator. Because the light-colored individuals would be more likely to survive to reproduce, more light-coloration and fewer dark-coloration genes would be passed on to the next gener
