Lizards

Study: Lizards bask for more than warmth

Keeping warm isn't the only reason lizards and other cold-blooded critters bask in the sun. According to a study published in the May/June issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology , chameleons alter their sunbathing behavior based on their need for vitamin D. "It's a longstanding assumpt...

K-State Veterinarian Says Although Exotic Pets Can Be Great Companions, There Are Health Factors That Can Affect Both the Animal and Humans

... fish and some tortoises. Owning an exotic pet is different from owning pets like dogs and cats. Some exotic pets have specialized needs, such as lizards that require an ultraviolet light for basking, live insects for food or other whole prey items, West said. "Many of our diets and health care are...

Iowa State University researcher's work on gender, temperature link in reptiles published in Nature

...elopment. Warners research explored whether the temperatures at which the lizards were born was the best climate for each of the two genders. This was a hy...ability. Warner also notes that species may have a way of adapting. The lizards may compensate by moving to cooler places, digging nests deeper in the sand...

January American Naturalist highlights

...raphic variation in traits influences range predictions. Buckley finds that lizards from the five populations are suited to live in different areas and are pre...climate warming, the extent of the predicted northward shift depends on the lizards traits. The research suggests that mechanistic modeling approaches that...

Why are some groups of animals so diverse?

... A new study of finger-sized Australian lizards sheds light on one of the most striking yet largel...verse group of vertebratesmore than 252 species of lizards called skinks. Researchers at the Cornell Lab of O...bosky says there are at least 252 species of these lizards living Down Under, and probably many more that rem...

Lizard Mothers Dress Their Progeny to Ensure Success in Later Life

..., Santa Cruz, have found that female side-blotched lizards are able to induce different colour patterns in th...l Ecology Letters, shows that female side-blotched lizards give an additional dose of the hormone estradiol t...es. The extra hormone affects the back patterns of lizards that hatch from those eggs, creating either length...

More Lizards, Including Pets, Found Venomous

... author of the research, the venom is the perfect knockout punch by monitor lizards to their prey like small mammals and lizards. It stops blood clotting, rapi...ve gone unnoticed for so long because it is not fatal, and yet, it may help lizards catch prey. The researchers isolated crotamine, the classic venom of ra...

Lizards in Biological News

Genetic study finds treasure trove of new lizards

University of Adelaide research has discovered that there are many more species of Australian lizards than previously thought, raising new questions about conservation and management of Australia's native reptiles. PhD student Paul Oliver, from the University's School of Earth and Environmental...

Global survey of lizards reveals greater abundance of animals on islands than on mainland ecosystems

A comprehensive survey of lizards on islands around the world has confirmed what island biologists and seafaring explorers have long observed: Animals on islands are much more abundant than their counterparts on the mainland. Besides confirming that longstanding observation, the study signals an ...

Pressured by predators, lizards see rapid shift in natural selection

Countering the widespread view of evolution as a process played out over the course of eons, evolutionary biologists have shown that natural selection can turn on a dime -- within months -- as a population's needs change. In a study of island lizards exposed to a new predator, the scientists found ...

Naming evolution's winners and losers

...d have been expected. "Their species richness is so low, given how old they are," he said. The tuatara, which lives in New Zealand and resembles lizards although it is actually a distant cousin has only two species. "In the same period of time that produced more than 8,000 species of snakes and lizar...

Warmer environment means shorter lives for cold-blooded animals

... Stony Brook, N.Y., July 27, 2009 - Temperature explains much of why cold-blooded organisms such as fish, amphibians, crustaceans, and lizards live longer at higher latitudes than at lower latitudes, according to research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Scie...

Discovery raises new doubts about dinosaur-bird links

...er animal that has walked on land, the scientists said, has a moveable thigh bone that is involved in their motion including humans, elephants, dogs, lizards and in the ancient past dinosaurs. The implication, the researchers said, is that birds almost certainly did not descend from theropod dinosaurs,...

Komodo even more deadly than thought: Research

...buted to a phenomenon known as island gigantism, since there are no other carnivorous mammals to fill the niche on the islands where they live. The lizards are apex predators and dominate the ecosystems in which they live. Although Komodo dragons eat carrion, they also hunt and ambush prey including inver...

Crickets may predict human survivability during global warming

...tation to extinction. Winterhalter expects that once the study is finished, his innovative approach will be adapted to fit other creatures, such as lizards and frogs. "One of the most exciting aspects of this project from a scientific perspective is that we are attempting to build a bridge between two...

The law of the weakest

...n fact, communities of subpopulations following such rules have been identified in numerous ecosystems, ranging from coral reef invertebrates to lizards in the inner Coast Range of California. Such cyclical interaction is also familiarly termed "rock-paper-scissors" interaction. This is where the ro...

Tree lizard’s quick release escape system makes jumpers turn somersaults

... Specifically how do branch hopping, tree dwelling lizards cope with their loss. Teaming up with undergraduat...ly encouraged arboreal Anolis carolinensis (anole) lizards to launch themselves from a 11cm high platform as ...imals perform without their tails? Encouraging the lizards to drop their tails by holding them, just like a h...

Lizards in Biological Technology

Dry adhesive based on carbon nanotubes gets stronger, with directional gripping ability

... reported in the journal Science by a team of researchers from four U.S. institutions. Scientists have long been interested in the ability of gecko lizards to scurry up walls and cling to ceilings by their toes. The creatures owe this amazing ability to microscopic branched elastic hairs in their toes th...

MIT creates gecko-inspired bandage

...and colleagues have created a waterproof adhesive bandage inspired by gecko lizards that may soon join sutures and staples as a basic operating room tool for p...the bandage has the same kind of nanoscale hills and valleys that allow the lizards to cling to walls and ceilings. Layered over this landscape is a thin coati...

Lizards in Biological Definition

Cold-blooded

...le for activity, growth, repair and reproduction. Types of temperature control Examples of this temperature control include: Snakes and lizards sunning themselves on rocks. Fish changing depths in the water column to find a suitable temperature. Desert animals burrowing beneath the ...

Parthenogenesis

...er fleas , aphids ) and some vertebrates (e.g. lizards , salamanders , some fish , and even turkeys )....) reproduce exclusively by parthenogenesis. These lizards live in the dry and sometimes harsh climate of the...g aspect to reproduction in these asexual whiptail lizards is that mating behaviors are still seen even thoug...

Lizards in Biological Dictionary

Polyploid

... Polyploid animals are often sterile, so they often reproduce by parthenogenesis. Polyploid lizards are also quite common and parthenogenetic. ... polyploid ( ) adj. Having one or more extra sets of chromosomes: a polyploid species; a polyplo...

Insectivores

...i:10. ... Insectivores are carnivorous mammals that survive by eating almost nothing but small insects. ... Insectivores include bats, frogs, lizards and anteaters. ... Explains everything about insectivores , member of the Insectivora order and the family. ... Foliage insectivores are pre- ...