Dispatches from the field: new adventures with endangered crocodile lizards and oriental garden lizards

by | Dec 2, 2017 | Animal signals, Behaviour, China field work, Colour, Communication, Crocodile lizard, Dispatches from the field

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),...

A lizard with attitude

by | Nov 10, 2013 | Animal signals, China field work, Communication

Read our latest lab post on CNN iReporter to see video of a Chinese toad-headed agama taking charge of a researcher (name withheld). Note that there are two videos. The better video is the second one, behind the first one (click arrow/number). Here is a photo of said...

Dispatches from the field: tough times for desert lizards in parts of Xinjiang Province, China

by | Jul 9, 2013 | China field work, Conservation, Dispatches from the field, Habitat use, Lizard Lab adventures, Phrynocephalus, Toad-headed agamas

We have just recently finished working on a particularly interesting lizard: the toad-headed agama Phrynocephalus axillaris. We found a population on the gravel plains just west of Ruoqiang, in central Xinjiang Province, while searching for another species, P....

Dispatches from the field: touring China’s deserts in search of toad-headed agamas

by | Jun 29, 2013 | China field work, Dispatches from the field, Lab news, Lizard Lab adventures, Phrynocephalus, Social behaviour, Toad-headed agamas

I am currently in Xinjiang Province, northern China, with Dr. Qi Yin, our collaborator from the Chengdu Institute of Biology (CIB), which is part of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS). We have funding from CAS to study the evolution of complex visual signals in...

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the Macquarie University land, the Wattamattagal clan of the Darug nation, whose cultures and customs have nurtured, and continue to nurture, this land, since the Dreamtime.  We pay our respects to Elders past, present and future.