The accelerating rate of vertebrate extinctions and population declines threatens to disrupt important ecological interactions, altering key ecosystem processes such as animal seed dispersal. The study of highly specialized mutualistic interactions is crucial to predict the consequences of population declines and extinctions. Islands offer unique opportunities to study highly specialized intera...

ROBERTS, JOHN S., AND BODIL SCHMIDT-NIELSEN. Renal ultrastructure and excretion of salt and water by three terrestrial lizards. Am. J. Physiol. 2 I I (1) : 476-486. I g66.-Determinations of sodium, chloride, inulin, and osmolal concentrations were made on blood and urine collected from dehydrated, waterloaded, and salt-loaded geckos, horned toads, and Galapagos lizards. Electron micrographs wer...

Although it is well established that many insects, birds and mammals serve as important pollinators and seed dispersers of flowering plants, the role of lizards in these processes has traditionally been considered as rare and less important. However, recent work shows both that their role as mutualistic agents has been underestimated and also reveals a striking pattern – that pollination and se...

Iguanian lizards generally use their tongue to capture prey. Because lingual prehension is based on surface phenomena (wet adhesion, interlocking), the maximal prey size that can be captured is small. However, published records show that prey items eaten by chameleons include small vertebrates such as lizards and birds, indicating that these lizards are using a different prey prehension mechani...

Based on stomach contents of museum specimens and published records (n 5 51 prey items), Lampropeltis zonata eats lizards (37, 72.5%), squamate eggs (6, 11.8%), mammals (6), and birds (2, 3.9%). Juveniles feed on lizards, especially Sceloporus (spiny lizards) and Eumeces (skinks), whereas adults supplement their diet with squamate eggs and endothermic prey. Prey items are located by active fora...

The iguanid lizard Tropidurus peruvianus was studied along an ocean cliff and beach in northern Peru during winter. T. peruvianus inhabit arid coastal areas of Peru providing refugia such as cliffs, rock outcrops and driftwood. Lizards first appear at burrow entrances between 0730 and 0800 hrs, but may delay activity as much as four hours if conditions are unsuitable. The number of lizards acti...

Iguanians are one of the most diverse groups of extant lizards (>1,700 species) with acrodontan iguanians dominating in the Old World, and non-acrodontans in the New World. A new lizard species presented herein is the first acrodontan from South America, indicating acrodontans radiated throughout Gondwana much earlier than previously thought, and that some of the first South American lizards we...

In Australia, large native predators are fatally poisoned when they ingest invasive cane toads (Rhinella marina). As a result, the spread of cane toads has caused catastrophic population declines in these predators. Immediately prior to the arrival of toads at a floodplain in the Kimberley region, we induced conditioned taste aversion in free-ranging varanid lizards (Varanus panoptes), by offer...

To establish whether the effects of pinealectomy on circadian locomotor rhythmicity vary with season, we examined, in constant temperature and darkness, the locomotor behaviour of ruin lizards Podarcis sicula collected and subjected to pinealectomy at different times of the year. Changes in the freerunning period in response to pinealectomy were found to be significantly greater in summer than ...

Questions: Are there differences in whole-animal performance between the sexes, and what are the causes of this sexual dimorphism? Organisms: Humans, horses, greyhound dogs, pigeons, and lizards. Methods: We analysed performance records of human athletes, racehorses, greyhound dogs, racing pigeons, and lizards with respect to sexual dimorphism. Using the lizard data set, we correlated sexual di...