Martin Whiting

3-legged lizards can thrive against all odds, challenging assumptions about how evolution works in the wild Most lizards probably don’t survive devastating injuries. But a new study documents 122 cases of limb loss across 58 species – these exceptions shine a new light on natural selection.

3-legged lizards can thrive against all odds, challenging assumptions about how evolution works in the wild
theconversation.com/3-legged-liz...

🦎THREAD: We just published something wild in @asn-amnat.bsky.social - lizards missing entire limbs not only survive, but some appear to actually thrive in the wild?!

Let me tell you about the "three-legged pirate" lizards 🏴‍☠️

[Paper: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... ]

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Hot off the press! Check out our new paper on sleepy lizard aka shingleback skink fire cue discrimination led by @ecolojolly.bsky.social DM if you want a PDF.

Just out - our review of social learning in reptiles and its implications for animal culture. Part of a special issue on animal culture and conservation in a changing world. Happy to send a PDF if requested.

A cryptic role for reciprocal helping in a cooperatively breeding bird - Nature A study of the cooperative breeding behaviour of superb starlings during 40 consecutive breeding seasons over 20 years reveals long-term reciprocal helping between both related and unrelated individua...

Our latest superb starling work in @nature.com. We observe long-term reciprocal helping relationships, and suggest reciprocity is an underappreciated mechanism promoting the stability of cooperatively breeding societies. Led by Alexis Earl and @gerrycarter.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Huge congrats to Jai Lake for submitting his PhD thesis on the mechanisms underpinning social complexity. A huge amount of work - Jai learnt a whole range of new skills in the process. Jai was cosupervised by Geoff While (Uni Tasmania), with help from Dan Hoops + colleagues at Columbia University.

Check out biologists Maddi Holmes and Kathy Potter from @muche-macquarie.bsky.social talking frog science at the Sydney Comedy Festival.

Very happy and humbled to have received this award. A huge thanks to all my wonderful colleagues @scienceanu.bsky.social and abroad who made this possible!

Open letter to the President of the Royal Society – time to stand up for your values If you wish to show your support for the letter below regarding apparent inaction by the Royal Society in the face of breaches of its code of conduct by Elon Musk FRS, please sign below. I invite anyo...

Members of the U.K. and international scientific community are invited to sign to show their support: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Public Statement on Recent Attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives On 10 February 2025, the ASIH Executive Committee voted in support of the following statement: 11 February 2025 The Executive Board of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH) is concerned about recent turmoil at the United States federal governmental agencies established to promote the advancement of science. Many of our members are supported by federal funds in their scientific pursuits, and this funding is paramount for better understanding the diversity of our natural world. Inquiries into amphibians, reptiles, and fishes have resulted in major breakthroughs in the medical industry, serve as models for our understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes, and have even been used to better prepare our armed forces for international conflicts. Federal funding has supported many of these endeavors. While we understand that funding models change over time, we adamantly condemn any model that does not incorporate cooperation between politicians and the greater scientific community. We also condemn any model that does not fairly provide funds to scientific investigators through peer review by experts in the scientific community. The suggested changes in governmental funding practices centered around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have resulted in confusion amongst members of ASIH, and the greater scientific community. The Executive Board of ASIH fully supports the idea that diversity and inclusivity of the scientific community leads to greater discoveries in ichthyological and herpetological research and ultimately strengthens us as a community of scholars. Similar to DEI initiatives at ASIH, these initiatives at the federal level are designed to foster and protect diversity in STEM education and research. We want to reaffirm our mission and commitment to all of you: ASIH condemns the recent attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion initia…

Public Statement on Recent Attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives

Sincerely,
the Executive Board of the ASIH (American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists) #TeamFish #TeamHerps #ASIH

www.asih.org/2025-asih-ex...

Charles Darwin was born on this day in 1809. Happy birthday to the architect of natural selection and evolutionary theory - a true legend! Here he is as a youngster. We will be celebrating his birthday in our lab meeting today.

#charlesdarwin #darwin #originofspecies #naturalselection

YouTube video by EcolClips The Evolution of Social Behavior with Prof. Martin Whiting | EcolClips

Ever wondered why some animals are social and others solitary?

I was surprised by the link between animal behaviour and our own social structures

New #EcolClips with @lizardlab.bsky.social

m.youtube.com/watch?v=bfER...

#ecology #biology #animals #behaviour #reptiles #nature #science #australia

Why blue tongue? A potential UV-based deimatic display in a lizard - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Abstract Deimatic displays are a type of anti-predator behaviour that startles the predator. They have received much recent theoretical attention, enabling the empirical study of this phenomenon withi...

To read our first paper about bluey tongue colour, go here: link.springer.com/article/10.1... or message us for a PDF.

#lizard #bluetongue #bluetongueskink #bluetonguelizard #lizardcartoon #cartoon #tiliqua #coloursci

To answer that question we are delving into collaborative projects with nanoparticle engineers and experts in robotics. This phase of the study is being led by Dr. Sergio Naretto. Stay tuned for more exciting results!

They are perhaps best know for their bright blue tongues but read the cartoon — the blue colour we see is not all it appears to be.

The Lizard Lab tackled the question of why the tongue is so brightly coloured, and how that colour is produced.

Part 2
This work was edited and supported by @hudrewthis.bsky.social, an academic in MassArt's new Integrative Sciences and Biological Arts Department.

Blueys are iconic in Australia. They are a particularly large skink, found in both the wild and suburbia, where they face lots of threats.

Check out this amazing cartoon by Meghan Swan (IG: @deadpixelproductions) explaining tongue colour in the Australian blue tongue skink (blueys). It was such a pleasure collaborating on this project, which was part of a course at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Huge congrats to recent grads Dr. Victoria Russell and Dr. Yorick Lambreghts cosupervised by me, Geoff While and Erik Wapstra through the University of Tasmania. Both spent substantial time in the Lizard Lab at Macquarie University. Well done!

Enterobacteriaceae community dynamics in sleepy lizards: Richness, prevalence and co‐occurrence over time Our study examined the co-occurrence patterns of gut bacteria in 87 sleepy lizards over their activity season, finding that bacterial richness and prevalence generally increased over time, likely due...

Check out our new paper led by Ko-Huan Lee and Stephan Leu: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

From eggs to adulthood: sustained effects of early developmental temperature and corticosterone exposure on physiology and body size in an Australian lizard Highlighted Article: Incubation temperature and prenatal corticosterone exposure have independent sustained effects, but not interactive effects, on morphological and physiological traits in the delic...

Check out our cool new findings showing how developmental temperature and corticosterone have long term impacts on mitochondrial efficiency that coincide with consistent differences in body size through life! A fantatsic team effort doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

Check out our new paper "Effect of elevated incubation temperatures on learning and brain anatomy of hatchling and juvenile lizards" published online in Journal of Comparative Physiology B and led by Iván Beltran. @sherculanohouzel.bsky.social
rdcu.be/d2So4

Christine Wilson (@keytarchris) is retiring from the Lizard Lab after 10 years service! Chris has helped with field work, ordering supplies, checking on animals on weekends and public holidays including Christmas. Chris has been a great friend and supporter of the lab and we can’t thank her enough!

Huge congrats to Rachel Wong for graduating with a Masters of Research! Rachel worked on quantity discrimination in water skinks, which we hope to submit for publication soon.

The Lizard Lab had a great week at ISBE in Melbourne a few weeks back. We had lab alumni, honorary and current members all give great talks! Well done everyone! #isbe2024

High nest failure in a zebra finch population and persistent nest predation by a monitor lizard Ecology & Evolution is a broad open access journal welcoming research in ecology, evolution, and conservation science, and providing a forum for evidence-based views.

New paper on the 'leaping feats' of a hungry goanna (monitor) lizard and the potential impacts of goanna predation on nesting success in zebra finches, led by Marc Naguib.

Have just learnt Animal Cognition will be open access in 2024-Springer announced this with great excitement! But check the small print "The 2024 APC for Animal Cognition will be EUR 2690.00/ USD 3390.00/ GBP 2290.00." I'll publish elsewhere. @springer1842.bsky.social