What we're learning here in the Galapagos Islands is animals have a far greater ability to adapt to a changing world than we thought.

And, you know, it's not just here.

Stories of extreme evolution are popping up on islands everywhere.

We got an inside tip about a discovery in the Caribbean that's changing the textbooks.

Of all the stories in this series, this one's one of my personal favorites because my obsession is lizards.

♪ Back in 2017, it's hurricane season.

And no one knows it yet, but weeks from now 2 category 5 storms will rip through the islands.

It's the perfect set-up to discover something wild.

All you need is the right person in the right place at the right time.

I'll probably walk a little bit behind the pile, where the palmetto trees are.

That's a good area.

[Campbell-Staton] You're the expert, my man.

Lead the way.

All right.

[Campbell-Staton] Like me, Anthony Herrel is into lizards in a big way.

[Anthony] I mean, I'm probably among the few people in the world that know quite a bit about lizards.

So, I would say I'm a lizard expert.

[Campbell-Staton] Getting to catch up with Anthony is pretty cool.

He actually took me on my very first field trip back when I was an undergrad student.

And you might think tracking down lizards in the undergrowth is kind of weird, and maybe it is, but it still gets me fired up.

[Animal squeaking] Anthony is looking for a very special population of the tiny lizards... with a surprisingly big story to tell.

Silver Key anoles only live on a few islands out here.

They rely on grip and speed as they compete for food... [Buzzing] and a mate.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ There's one over there.

Do you guys want to check it out?

It's on the top of that frond.

[Campbell-Staton] These lizards are highly territorial.

Whichever of these two guys holds on to the top spot is more likely to get the girl.

Now, I could watch this all day... [Anole drops to ground] but Anthony's not here to watch fights.

He's here to catch lizards.

And I can tell you, it's harder than it looks.

[Palm fronds rustling] Anthony's completing what we scientists call a "baseline" study.

[Anthony] Come on, my friend.

[Campbell-Staton] And pay attention in the back... because all this lizard data is going to be important.

Come on, little guy.

With expert handling, this doesn't hurt them at all.

Just by generally looking at it, we can see that this is a male here about 3 years of age.

And then on each toe, you actually have these sticky toepads that-- Gotcha.

And as you can see they're pretty fast, um, trying to get away.

And so, these measurements will basically allow us to look at populations and how they change through time and evolve as the environment is changing.

[Campbell-Staton] As luck would have it, Anthony heads home just as two massive storms are brewing out at sea... [Winds whipping] Hurricanes Irma... [Thunder booming] and Maria.

[Lightning crackling] [Raining] [Man on TV] The eye of Irma is right now moving through the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Maximum sustained winds are potentially catastrophic-- 175 miles per hour.

[Wind blowing, thundering] [Campbell-Staton] Both storms tear the islands apart.

[Cracking, glass breaking] ♪ [Dripping, rain slowing] Anthony wonders: Can his lizards possibly keep up with this kind of destructive change?

[Anthony] So, I contacted one of the leading experts in the field, and he basically was like very skeptical.

He said, like, "Oh, I don't think you'll find anything.

"The lizards probably are all going to be dead anyways, so why do you really want to go back?"

[Airplane flying] [Campbell-Staton] Anthony is desperate to find out, so, he returns.

And he's shocked by what he finds.

♪ The average lizard now has bigger feet and longer front legs.

More than that, when he carries on the study, he finds the lizards pass these traits on to their young.

They're evolving into "Hurricane Lizards."

To find out what was going on, Anthony tells me he even re-creates a hurricane... [Loud whooshing] with a leaf-blower.

[Anthony] We had expected that they would just jump off, um, get away from the wind, but they didn't.

They actually went to the backside of the branch.

♪ [Loud whooshing] ♪ [Campbell-Staton] You can see why those bigger feet and longer legs make a difference.

[Anthony] The big toe pads allow you to stick really well onto that branch that you're holding onto.

And the forearms allow you to really grip around the branch.

[Campbell-Staton] Surprisingly, the newly evolved hurricane lizards even have different aerodynamics.

Amazing what we biologists will do in the name of science.

All Anthony's work shows that evolution can take place at an incredible speed, even faster than with our finches in the Galapagos.

[Anthony] The fact that 2 hurricanes changed the morphology of the entire population, shifting their shape, is really quite amazing.

[Campbell-Staton] The hurricanes were what we biologists call selective events.

We now know that the kind of evolutionary change that Darwin thought happened over millions of years can be triggered by a single catastrophic storm.

And on a warming planet, where extreme hurricanes are predicted to increase by 13% in the next 40 years, it's good to know some of the inhabitants here can handle themselves.

♪