AN EXPERIMENTAL CONFIRMATION OF MORPHOLOGICAL ADAPTATION: TOE FRINGES IN THE SAND‐DWELLING LIZARD UMA SCOPARIA

How inclines affect the escape behaviour of a dune-dwelling lizard,Uma scoparia

“…Thus, we were unable to detect a decrease in performance that was attributable to steep surfaces and not accounted for by steep inclines of the path travelled by the lizard. The effects of incline on locomotor performance may also depend on both the size of the lizard (Huey & Hertz 1982, 1984 and the mechanical properties of the inclined surface (Carothers 1986). For our laboratory study of running performance on sand, we minimized variation in the size of lizards for a representative sample of animals observed in the field.…”

“…Lizards have also served as model organisms for ecological studies (Milstead 1967;Huey et al 1983;Vitt & Pianka 1994), and some studies have integrated measures of locomotor performance with structural features of habitat such as substrate type (e.g. Carothers 1986;Miles 1994) and perch diameter (e.g. Losos & Sinervo 1989;Losos & Irschick 1996) vegetation (e.g.…”

“…Furthermore, movement up and down inclined surfaces is a very general feature of the biology of lizards, in part because their size is often small compared to obstacles in the environment. Few studies of lizard locomotion, however, have tested the effects of varying incline (Huey & Hertz 1982, 1984Carothers 1986;Farley & Emshwiller 1996).…”

“…Moving up inclines increases the energetic cost of locomotion (Farley & Emshwiller 1996) and may decrease maximum speed depending on the substrate and size of the lizard (Huey & Hertz 1984;Carothers 1986). Despite significant decreases in the maximal speed of large lizards on inclines, the initial accelerations of both large and small lizards are remarkably unaffected by incline (Huey & Hertz 1984).…”

Evolutionary shifts in habitat aridity predict evaporative water loss across squamate reptiles

“…; Pough et al. ), morphology and scalation (Cohen and Myres ; Carothers ; Oufiero et al. ), activity and thermoregulatory behavior (Muth ; Grant and Dunham ), and water homeostasis (Shoemaker and Nagy ; Davis and DeNardo ).…”