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The Use Of Color Vision & Color Communication In Lizards, Vasyl Hereha

Honors Theses

The reptile genus Anolis is a widespread and diverse group in the Caribbean region of North and South America. Most anoles have a colorful throat flap known as the dewlap, which they likely use for social behavior and communication. Dewlaps vary between anole species in terms of color and thickness (related to brightness). It has been experimentally demonstrated that anoles can detect a stimulus based on chromatic contrast and brightness contrast of the stimulus to the background. Therefore, we hypothesized that anole color diversity in the Puerto Rican anoles evolved to either (1) contrast the habitat background to appear detectable …