By Whiting, on October 28th, 2020
By Iván Beltrán
Environmental temperature determines many important aspects of an animal’s life. In ectotherms, commonly known as ‘cold-blooded’ animals, the temperature experienced during embryonic development significantly impacts a hatchling’s physiology and behaviour. For instance, nest temperatures determine offspring sex in turtles and crocodilians and affect body size in squamates, a group comprised of . . . → Read More: How will global warming affect egg-laying and live-bearing species? We asked one of the most extraordinary lizards in the world
By Whiting, on November 4th, 2019
Note, this field work formed the basis for Angela’s Masters thesis.
By Angela Simms
I wasn’t sure what to expect on the first night searching for the Sulawesi Forest Turtle. As little as 30 minutes into the stream walk, our local guide spots a large male perched on the edge of the clear shallow . . . → Read More: Dispatches from the field: following the Sulawesi Forest Turtle
By Whiting, on August 29th, 2019
By Birgit Szabo
As children we have much to learn after we are born. We learn to walk, to talk, to develop our social skills, and when we start school we learn how to read, write and do maths.
Humans, and many other animals, are considered altricial, meaning that juveniles need to be taken . . . → Read More: Blue-tongue lizards are born smart, at least as smart as their parents!
By Whiting, on August 23rd, 2019
The latest edition of Australian Geographic features the iconic Australian Frill-necked Lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii). A big part of the article, written by John Pickrell, features our own Christian Alessandro Perez-Martinez! And the top of the page features his photo (reproduced at left). Well done Christian! Have a read of the article.
The paper, . . . → Read More: Australian Geographic features frilled lizard work!
By Whiting, on October 18th, 2018
Check out our new paper on social learning in the Italian wall lizard, Podarcis sicula. This work formed part of Isabel Damas’ PhD thesis, and it was a huge effort! The question of what makes an invasive species successful compared to other species, that may fail to gain a foothold in a new location, . . . → Read More: Hot off the press! An invasive lizard species can learn from other species
By Whiting, on August 5th, 2018
This is a behind-the-scenes video tour of the lab. We will show you our research facilities, some of our study animals, and our lizard enclosures. This video was entirely put together by Cooper Van De Wal. Cooper is a student at Macquarie and volunteers in the lab. He also has his own, highly successful . . . → Read More: Come on a tour of The Lizard Lab
By Whiting, on June 8th, 2018
An enduring question among fans of blue-tongue lizards is why the blue tongue? Why have such an outrageously coloured tongue, given that the vast majority of lizards have a regular old pink tongue? Blueys (bluetongue skinks) are something of an Australian icon. They are part of Australian folklore and most Australians have encountered them . . . → Read More: Why blue tongue? A potential deimatic display has been uncovered in blue-tongue skinks
By Whiting, on December 2nd, 2017
It’s been a very busy year, which explains why I am only now writing this blog post from my trip to China earlier this year (May-June). I had the amazing opportunity of seeing one of the world’s most endangered lizards—the crocodile lizard (Shinisaurus crocodilurus), in the wild, and working with one of the largest . . . → Read More: Dispatches from the field: new adventures with endangered crocodile lizards and oriental garden lizards
By Fonti Kar, on September 6th, 2017
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 Whiting, on July 24th, 2017
We are looking for a highly motivated and suitably qualified candidate to conduct a PhD program of research on reptile visual ecology, commencing in 2017.
The successful applicant will be guided to develop a project to investigate the visual performance and ecological adaptations of a range of lizard species with differing life history traits. . . . → Read More: PhD opportunity – visual ecology of lizards
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