It states that in egg laying animals the embroyo gets calcium nutrients from the egg itself, however since this lizard has not eggs but a very thin membrane it would be lacking the calcium and would have defects. In mammals, the uterus and subsequent placenta actaully connects the mom/child to provide this, as well as all other, nutrients. The northern lizards have begun this process by delivering the first nutrient required, i.e. calcium due to lack of thick shell. This is evolution of a placenta (similar to you mom's) where the mom/child are linked and all nutrients flow through.

"Now we can see that the uterus secretes calcium that becomes incorporated into the embryo—it's basically the early stages of the evolution of a placenta in reptiles," Stewart explained.

You're making things up and even bringing my mom into this.

There was no such distinction between the northern and southern type of skinks. If there was then quote it.

there has to be other mechanics besides random mutations, and naural selection, that make this happen.  could a species guide its own evolution?

look up the experiment and e-coli rapidly adjusting to changes in environment as an example.  the book, darwin in the genome, goes into this also.

Read it properly. That line refers to both northern and southern skinks. He didn't claim there was a difference.

You and Superchunk are reading stuff into the article that aren't even there. See now what I mean when I said it's a misleading title!

Okay, you guys

You had one job in this topic, to "oo" and "aah" without arguing about evolution.

Clean out your desks, you're all fired

Haha!

It talks about egg laying animals and where the nutrients come from, i.e. the southern lizards. Then it talks about live birth animals like humans and where nutrients come from. Then it discusses how a lack of shell or thin shell would create deficiencies in the southern lizards. Then it discusses how that is solved and how that is a precursor to a placenta. Its the entire middle part of the article. Not quoting it and the summation line is quoted above by another user anyways. You're just being thick-headed and refusing to see the obvious. The live birth lizards are not just keeping the eggs inside longer, they are going through metabolic internal changes in their species to move away from eggs to live births similar to mammals.

This is the same if we observed huge differences in physical bodies/process between humans in Europe and those in Africa. Regardless if one is simply an adaptation to its environment, that is the whole point to evolution. The species evolves to the changes in the environment. It could be to totally replace the "inferior" characteristic or simply the divergence of the species based on isolated habitats, like the finches in the Galapagos Islands and their beak differences.

No it doesn't. It refers stictly to the souther skinks that give live birth.

Stop. Your interpretation is wrong. That whole segment discusses the differences between egg and placenta in general, not about this particular skink's northern and southern populations.