At my last post I was on Paros waiting for the winds to die down so we could get out to survey the experimental islets. Well, they never calmed. While I think we could make the kayak across the straits in one piece, the lizards are wisely hunkered down and we really can’t expect to get a decent … More Still waiting on Aeolus
It’s been weeks since my last post (sorry) but for better or worse the topic of this post is about the same: lizard videos. For the last two months I’ve spent far too much time pouring over videos of lizards running up and down sprint speed tracks, basking on rocks, or dashing under bushes. Luckily, occasionally I … More Still more videos
Now, when I really want to put something (or somebody) to sleep, my dissertation prospectus is pretty much the first thing I grab. Reading that thing aloud… well, does the trick. Sometimes though, especially in the case of my little lizards, it’s handy to have a trick to get them to go to sleep just a … More How to put a lizard to sleep
Iraklia, one of the islands in the small cyclades just south of Naxos, was my final small island of the summer. Again, the goal was to just grab a bunch of lizards, quick as possible, measure them, release them and get back home asap. Luckily Iraklia is a much shorter ferry ride than Amorgos. We … More Iraklia
As I’ve mentioned before, one of my primary research interests is how these lizards change in different contexts. So far I’ve measured a whole lot of morphological traits like limb length and head width on lizards from islands all over the cyclades. I’ve also measured a whole-organism performance trait, namely bite force, which relies on … More Lizard sprint speed
What’s wrong with this picture? I caught this lizard the other day and was quite surprised to see it had two tails. No, this isn’t a case of toxins in the water. One of the tails, the lower one in the picture I believe, was partially autotomized and the second regenerated despite the fact that … More Two tails!
There have been SO many lizards in my life these last few days. I’ve been collecting them by the handful. It turns out catching them is the easy part. Measuring all of them though takes hours! Here’s just a smattering I caught from one of my terraces.
Y’all have been asking for details on the bite force meter I’ve been alluding too. Here are a few pictures to illustrate what I’ve been talking about. The meter was borrowed from and built by Anthony Herrel, a collaborator in Paris. at its core are two metal plates to the left of the picture where … More The Bite Force Meter
I shouldn’t have built anticipation by waiting so long since posting about collecting data on lizards in the museums. I closed with a teaser that I’d soon post results of my data analysis. Well, here they are and unfortunately the short of it is, the data don’t look too great. Luckily, as I’ve an hour … More When in doubt, keep collecting data
The first step to figuring out if the physical appearance of these lizards do indeed change according to their ecological context was to visit natural history museums, looking for patterns in preserved specimens. After a bit of searching, I found that Yale, Harvard and the American Museum of Natural History in NYC all had preserved … More Jars full of lizards
Colin Donihue 