{"687575":{"#nid":"687575","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"It\u2019s so cold in Florida that iguanas might rain from the skies","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGreen iguanas (\u003Cem\u003EIguana iguana\u003C\/em\u003E) are not native to the U.S. but were brought to Florida in the 1960s, where they have, for the most part, flourished\u2014except, that is, when temperatures have dropped below 50 degrees F (10 degrees C).\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese chilly conditions can cause a cold shock in the\u0026nbsp;lizards. And because the\u0026nbsp;iguanas\u0026nbsp;tend to sleep in trees, getting cold shocked can sometimes cause the animals to fall from the skies in an\u0026nbsp;infamous Florida phenomenon.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese tropical lizards were experiencing conditions that they\u2019ve never experienced in their entire evolutionary history before, tens of millions of years,\u201d says \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/james-stroud\u0022\u003EJames Stroud\u003C\/a\u003E, an evolutionary biologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut in Florida, colder conditions occur every few years\u2014albeit less often as temperatures rise because of\u0026nbsp;climate change. The experience of the iguanas that have been forced to confront the cold in the state can teach scientists more about how animals respond to new climates more generally, Stroud says.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGreen iguanas (\u003Cem\u003EIguana iguana\u003C\/em\u003E) are not native to the U.S. but were brought to Florida in the 1960s, where they have, for the most part, flourished\u2014except, that is, when temperatures have dropped below 50 degrees F (10 degrees C).\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese chilly conditions can cause a cold shock in the\u0026nbsp;lizards. And because the\u0026nbsp;iguanas\u0026nbsp;tend to sleep in trees, getting cold shocked can sometimes cause the animals to fall from the skies in an\u0026nbsp;infamous Florida phenomenon.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese tropical lizards were experiencing conditions that they\u2019ve never experienced in their entire evolutionary history before, tens of millions of years,\u201d says \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/biosciences.gatech.edu\/people\/james-stroud\u0022\u003EJames Stroud\u003C\/a\u003E, an evolutionary biologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut in Florida, colder conditions occur every few years\u2014albeit less often as temperatures rise because of\u0026nbsp;climate change. The experience of the iguanas that have been forced to confront the cold in the state can teach scientists more about how animals respond to new climates more generally, Stroud says.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"36583","created_gmt":"2026-01-21 20:28:50","changed_gmt":"2026-01-22 16:24:10","author":"lvidal7","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"Scientific American","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/its-so-cold-in-florida-that-iguanas-might-rain-from-the-skies\/","dateline":{"date":"2026-01-16T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2026-01-16T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"192254","name":"cos-climate"},{"id":"166882","name":"School of Biological Sciences"},{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}