Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

The Effects Of Social And Physical Interactions On Lizard Morphology, Behavior, And Ecology, Casey Gilman

Doctoral Dissertations

Interactions with the physical and social aspects of an animal’s surroundings direct the trajectory of local adaptation and can lead to tremendous diversity within and across taxa. In my dissertation, I explored how interactions between lizards and their environment lead to morphological, behavioral, and ecological diversity. First, I examined how a common, but unexplored habitat characteristic, perch flexibility, affects jumping performance of an arboreal lizard. I found that in the lab, green anole lizards (Anolis carolinensis) did not take advantage of the natural recoil of the flexible perches, and suffered decreased jump distance and takeoff speed as a …