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Note: this blog post is republished from Fonti’s web site Dominant individuals tend to have greater monopoly over food and mates and therefore have more offspring compared to subordinate individuals. Are these successes attributed to greater cognitive ability? Or are dominant individuals just better at freeloading from their clever subordinate counterparts? We investigated . . . → Read More: Brains and Brawn: dominant lizards are better learners too! by Fonti Kar Animals often find themselves in direct competition with other individuals for resources and mates. Because fighting is costly, many species honestly signal their fighting ability to avoid injury (non-escalated fights). For example, in flat lizards (Platysaurus broadleyi), males can resolve dominance status by displaying their UV-reflective throats to their opponent. . . . → Read More: Why do winners keep winning? By Dan Noble When it comes to animal athletics lizards have been model systems for exploring the relationships between ecology and physical performance. Our two recent papers, one in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society and the second in Behavioral Ecology add to the growing list of studies looking at functional performance in lizards. Eastern water . . . → Read More: Athletic lizards: Sex, hormones, and physical performance Followers of the Lizard Lab blog will have read previous reports about relatively rapid learning in lizards. In those studies we typically focused on males or avoided drawing comparisons between the sexes because either the sample size was limited or the focus of the study was different. In our latest paper we decided the . . . → Read More: Sex, boldness and learning in a lizard By Dan Noble Sexual selection – the differential reproductive success of individuals – is a powerful evolutionary force. Sexual selection can lead to evolution of both beautiful and bizarre phenotypes, such as peacock trains, deer antlers and the complex displays and bright colours of many lizards. Although we see these tell-tail signs of sexual . . . → Read More: A lizard’s guide to mating: Alternative reproductive tactics give males an edge in finding the ladies For anyone interested in comparative cognition, these are exciting times and 2012 has been a good year for lizards! Manuel Leal and Robert Powell’s study of Anolis cognition demonstrated that lizards are capable of behavioural flexibility. (Behavioural flexibility, a key feature of advanced cognition, is the ability to solve a novel problem, or develop . . . → Read More: Hot off the press! “Learning outdoors: male lizards show flexible spatial learning under semi-natural conditions”  Comments are closed  Cognition, Lab news, Water skink project  Biology Letters, cognition, Daniel Noble, eastern water skink, Eulamprus quoyii, lizard, Lizard Lab, spatial cognition, The Lizard Lab Yes, that’s right, the first of our Water Skink (Eulamprus quoyii) babies have made their way into the world. Although it is earlier then expected, these little cuties are doing all the cool stuff their parents do. Little head bobs, chowing down on crickets and even biting their captors! The brothers and sisters! . . . → Read More: Baby boom in the Lizard Lab! Comments are closed Lab news, Water skink project baby lizard, eastern water skink, Eulamprus quoyii, lizard, Noble |
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