The islands of New Caledonia are famous for their geckos. Recent research has revealed the evolutionary past of these sticky lizards, and it all began shortly after the islands themselves emerged from the Pacific Ocean. 

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Main Paper References:

Skipwith PL, Bauer AM, Jackman TR, Sadlier RA. 2016. Old but not ancient: coalescent species tree of New Caledonian geckos reveals recent post‐inundation diversification. Journal of Biogeography 43:1266–1276. DOI: 10.1111/jbi.12719.

Other Mentioned Papers/Studies:

Griffing, A. H., Sanger, T. J., Epperlein, L., Bauer, A. M., Cobos, A., Higham, T. E., ... & Gamble, T. 2021. And thereby hangs a tail: morphology, developmental patterns and biomechanics of the adhesive tails of crested geckos (Correlophus ciliatus). Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 288(1953), 20210650.

Other Links/Mentions:

Kimbrough L. 2022.Tiny new tree frog species found in rewilded Costa Rican nature reserve: https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/tiny-new-tree-frog-species-found-in-rewilded-costa-rican-nature-reserve/ 

Crested gecko chirping audio on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFOGsS2TPuI 

Independent article about house gecko on board ship: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/china-asian-maidstone-kent-b2007108.html 

Editing and Music:

Podcast edited by Emmy – https://www.fiverr.com/emmyk10 

Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson

Species Bi-week theme – Michael Timothy

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