It is a dangerous world for small lizards. To survive a lizard may need to pull off some pretty ingenious escape maneuvers. In this episode we look at two lizards that dodge predators using water. For the Species of the Bi-week we check out a species more likely to elicit escape behaviour than undertake it. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com

Main Paper References:

Nirody, J. A., Jinn, J., Libby, T., Lee, T. J., Jusufi, A., Hu, D. L., & Full, R. J. (2018). Geckos Race Across the Water’s Surface Using Multiple Mechanisms. Current Biology, 28(24), 4046-4051.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2018.10.064

Swierk, L. (2019). ANOLIS AQUATICUS (= NOROPS AQUATICUS) (Water Anole). UNDERWATER BREATHING. Herpetological Review, 50(1), 134–135.

Species of the Bi-Week:

Carrasco, P. A., Grazziotin, F. G., Farfán, R. S. C., Koch, C., Ochoa, J. A., Scrocchi, G. J., … Chaparro, J. C. (2019). A new species of Bothrops (Serpentes: Viperidae: Crotalinae) from Pampas del Heath, southeastern Peru, with comments on the systematics of the Bothrops neuwiedi species group. Zootaxa, 4565(3), 301. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4565.3.1

Other Mentioned Papers/Studies:

NICHOLSON, KIRSTEN E.; BRIAN I. CROTHER, CRAIG GUYER & JAY M. SAVAGE (2012). It is time for a new classification of anoles (Squamata: Dactyloidae). Zootaxa 3477: 1–108.

NICHOLSON, KIRSTEN E.; BRIAN I. CROTHER, CRAIG GUYER & JAY M. SAVAGE (2018). Translating a clade based classification into one that is valid under the international code of zoological nomenclature: the case of the lizards of the family Dactyloidae (Order Squamata). Zootaxa 4461 (4): 573–586.

Other Links/Mentions:

Video of surface running in the wild: https://www.cell.com/cms/10.1016/j.cub.2018.10.064/attachment/5ca65509-66ab-4c2e-b882-81b2a32dacc6/mmc2.mp4

Video of surface running in the lab: https://www.cell.com/cms/10.1016/j.cub.2018.10.064/attachment/810c5bcb-6b9f-4294-88cc-0181b6fbe4e3/mmc3.mp4

Video of underwater breathing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDwqWAv1RO4

Gecko walking on water article: https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/watch-a-gecko-runs-on-water

Which anole are you? https://www.playbuzz.com/item/d14bede2-6d3f-4814-92d2-2bd35caaedf5?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=ff&utm_campaign=ff&pb_traffic_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0IOp1Gczd2rrUBHC_ajsXDMKkUyRtJtvySoSPFV_qNTQbvAp9EVvsN06k

Music:

Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson

Other Music – The Passion HiFi, www.thepassionhifi.com