Lizards - Science topic

Ichnotropis is a genus of small and elusive ground-dwelling lizards mostly distributed in the savannas and woodlands south of the Congo River. The genus comprises six nominal species and three subspecies; however, the phylogenetic hypothesis of this group and the taxonomical status of several taxa remain unresolved. Among these species, Ichnotropis...

Selection via predation is a strong evolutionary force on small organisms, producing unique phenotypic adaptations. In cryptic species, different populations may exhibit color polymorphisms to better match multiple substrates or backgrounds. Here, we conducted a clay model study in the Ocala National Forest of Florida (USA) to test predation as a s...

The temperate forests of eastern Australia have been extensively fragmented over the last 200 years and are now increasingly threatened by fire and climate change. To understand and manage the impacts of these threats, there is a need to understand patterns of endemism and diversity across an array of ecologically divergent taxa. Anepischetosia is...

West Africa is exceptionally biodiverse, yet its wildlife remains largely understudied despite the rapid and ongoing land-use changes. Large swaths of Guinea-Bissau’s landscape were historically characterised by native forest-savannah mosaics. However, key areas of savannah habitats have been converted to rice agroecosystems and forests are being t...

Background Dengue fever is a globally prevalent arbovirus disease that poses a serious challenge to global health. Therefore, analyzing the relationship between dengue fever incidence and meteorological factors and developing a more effective prediction model based on this relationship can provide a theoretical basis for public health departments t...

This study explores the development of soft, super‐stretchable artificial muscles by 4D printing of composite thermoplastic elastomers. A propylene‐based elastomer, combined with carbon black (CB) nanoparticles, is utilized to develop nanocomposite elastomers with enhanced mechanical properties. A pellet‐based material extrusion technique is employ...

Sanitja Island, the northernmost land of the Balearic Islands, is occupied by a population of Lilford’s Wall Lizard, Podarcis lilfordi, under extreme environmental conditions. It is an islet of less than 10 hectares, with low plant diversity and a complete absence of shrubs. During long-term monitoring, we studied lizard abundance over a period of...

We apply the caustic technique to samples of galaxy clusters stacked in redshift space to estimate the gravitational potential in the cluster's outer region and test modifications to the standard theory of gravity. We separate 122 galaxy clusters from the HeCS-SZ, HeCS-redMapper, and HeCS samples into four samples with increasing mass; we estimate...

Gecko-inspired dry adhesives have shown great potential in the field of robotics. However, there is still a large gap between current artificial adhesive-based grippers and natural geckos, especially in terms of precise and fast control of adhesion, which is an important capability for robotic gripper systems, since the targets to be gripped may va...

Accurate reconstruction of the timescale of organismal evolution requires knowledge of the placement of extinct representatives among living branches. The fossil record has the capacity to reframe hypotheses of organismal evolution by producing representatives of clades that predate previously known fossils or node ages. Recently, one fossil with t...

The Erhard's wall lizard Podarcis erhardii (Bedriaga, 1886) was first recorded on the tiny rocky islet of Spanopoula, near Kea (Aegean Archipelago, Greece), in 1980. Since then, there has been no other published reference to confirm the species' presence or to estimate its population status. Here, we report on a herpetological survey we carried out...

The wall gecko is found in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate regions. It is a nocturnal species that seeks shelter during the daytime and emerges at dusk to forage throughout the night. This small lizard has become established in areas near human habitation in the tropics, forming a close association with people. Like other vertebrates, wal...

Metaheuristic algorithms play a vital role in addressing a wide range of real-world problems by overcoming hardware and computational constraints. The Chameleon Swarm Algorithm (CSA) is a modern metaheuristic algorithm that uses how chameleons act. To improve the capabilities of the CSA, this work proposes a modified version of the Chameleon Swarm...

The predisposition of amino acids towards accepting the appropriate secondary structure form is ambiguous. The identified sequences (6–12 aa in length – ChSeq data base) of the chameleon type (the same sequence accepting different secondary structures) constitute a puzzle that makes it difficult to indicate the initial conformation in a chain with...

While blockchain’s immutability ensures data integrity, it also poses significant challenges when dealing with illegal or erroneous data that require modification. The concept of redactable blockchain has emerged, utilizing Chameleon Hash (CH) and subsequent Policy-based Chameleon Hash (PCH) for controlled data editing. However, current redactable...

Because of their diversity, microplastics (MPs), which are synthetic particles smaller than 5 mm, are highly bioavailable and widely distributed. The prevalence of microplastics in aquatic habitats has been extensively studied but less is known about their presence in terrestrial environments and biota. This study examined MP intake in terrestrial...

Context Changes in landscapes due to the conversion of natural vegetation into agroecosystems are causing an alarming and rapid loss of biodiversity on a global scale. Objectives We assess how local environmental factors and landscape structure influence Squamata reptiles’ abundance, and alpha and beta diversities in agricultural landscapes in the...

As one of 17 Gekko species known from Vietnam, the Golden gecko—G. badenii, a species endemic to the South of Vietnam, was discovered in Ba Den Mountain, Tay Ninh Province. The species is one of the most popular reptiles in local communities and media as a specialty food. The species is also subject of international trade. However, detailed informa...

On perfectly vertical surfaces, rolling is conventionally deemed impossible without external torque. While various species like geckos and spiders exhibit vertical locomotion, they cannot achieve rolling; instead, they fall. In...

Anthropogenic climate change is altering the environment at unprecedented rates with severe consequences for most living organisms. As a result, species may extend, truncate, or shift their ranges in order to adapt to changing conditions. Species Distribution Models (SDMs) provide a data driven approach to predict future distributions under climate...

The Chameleon Effect is a compelling mechanism in scalar field theories wherein the scalar field's mass depends on the local matter density, allowing it to evade detection in high-density environments while influencing cosmology in low-density regimes. In this paper, we revisit the theoretical underpinnings of the Chameleon mechanism and explore it...

Background Ectothermic arthropods, like ticks, are sensitive indicators of environmental changes, and their seasonality plays a critical role in the dynamics of tick-borne disease in a warming world. Juvenile tick phenology, which influences pathogen transmission, may vary across climates, with longer tick seasons in cooler climates potentially amp...

High-quality grid preparation for single-particle cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM) remains a bottleneck for routinely obtaining high-resolution structures. The issues that arise from traditional grid preparation workflows are particularly exacerbated for oxygen-sensitive proteins, including metalloproteins, whereby oxygen-induced damage and a...

Declining diversity, abundance, and body size of arthropods are characteristic features of urbanization. Recent work indicates that arthropod declines can cascade through urban food webs and limit consumer populations. However, the magnitude and extent of urban food limitation remains unknown. To expand our understanding of the consequences of urba...

Sex chromosomes impact chromatin organization and histone modification dynamics differently between males and females, particularly those involved in dosage compensation (DC). The stability of DC mechanisms may shape sex-specific phenotypes and traits such as lifespan. However, the tissue- and age-dependent variations as well as the evolutionary di...

A species of conservation concern, the Flat-tailed Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma mcallii; FTHL) has been petitioned for listing under the US Endangered Species Act four times. Although management and monitoring strategies have been developed to help prevent the need for federal listing, genetic information about the species is limited. Previous genomic...

While most lizard species are polygamous, dominant males typically have greater access to females and copulate more frequently than submissive ones. Several studies suggest that applying assisted reproduction techniques to this taxon could be an effective tool to enhance conservation programs. Therefore, the proper selection of males for assisted b...

The crosslinking characteristics of hydrogels and polymeric films critically influence their swelling capacity, a key factor in wound care applications. This study optimized the swelling behavior of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)–polyethylene glycol (PEG)–bromothymol blue (BTB) films using three hybrid metaheuristic algorithms: Hybrid Genetic-Hippopotamus...

The Internet of Things (IoT) is emerging as an innovative phenomenon concerned with the development of numerous vital applications. With the development of IoT devices, huge amounts of information, including users’ private data, are generated. IoT systems face major security and data privacy challenges owing to their integral features such as scala...

Reproductive characteristics are determining factors in the evolutionary processes of reptiles; however, they remain poorly documented in many species. In this study, we evaluated aspects of reproductive biology and determined the influence of body size and weight on the reproductive effort of the lizard Abronia gadovii, an anguid species that is v...

Iridescence refers to the optical property of surfaces for which the reflected wavelengths depend on viewing geometry. Although iridescence underlies some of the most striking animal colours, the sensory stimulation elicited by iridescent spectral shifts in relevant observers has seldom been explored. Wall lizards (genus Podarcis), with remarkable...

Es Colomer Island is occupied by a melanistic population of the Lilford’s Wall lizard, Podarcis lilfordi. Adult males are larger than females, with longer tails, and higher values of body mass, pileus length, head heigh, head width, hindleg length and number of dorsal scales. Adult sex ratio is balanced or slightly skewed towards males. At the summ...

Hybrids can experience genetic incompatibilities that lead to cellular dysfunction and infertility. Selection against hybrids can reinforce species boundaries, while compensatory mechanisms that support hybrid survival can lead to gene flow across species boundaries. Previous analyses of mitochondrial function of the hybrid lizards between Urosauru...

Larry David Wilson 1940–2024: Pioneer of Mesoamerican Herpetology and an Authority of the genus Tantilla passed away on 28 April 2024 having celebrated his birthday on 10 April 2024, when he turned 84 years of age, after a sudden illness, leaving a void in the herpetological community. Larry was a world-renowned American herpetologist and environme...

The paper deals with the description, distribution and habitats of the rarely found parachute gecko Gekko (Ptychozoon) horsfieldii. It also deals with the care of the gecko and its reproduction. Data on hatchling size and weight are provided for the first time.

Understanding the molecular logic of cortical cell-type diversity can illuminate cortical circuit function and evolution. Here, we performed single-nucleus transcriptome and chromatin accessibility analyses to compare neurons across three- to six-layered cortical areas of adult mice and across tetrapod species. We found that, in contrast to the six...

p>In learning English language especially speaking skill, teachers must use media to support students' learning so they can better enjoy and understand what is being said. This research aimed to identify the students’ perception on Mike the Chameleon Tiktok videos for speaking skill. In this study, researcher used qualitative descriptive. Next, the...

Anthropogenic pressures are impacting coastal marine ecosystems, necessitating large‐scale interventions to accelerate recovery. Propagule‐based restoration holds the potential for restoring shallow coastal systems at hectare scales by harnessing natural dispersal. However, predicting propagule dispersal remains challenging due to the complex hydro...

The business management of enterprises is gradually limited, and it is gradually unable to deal with many problems in financial management, which makes enterprises unable to avoid tax risks well. In order to improve the tax risk system and improve the tax risk prevention and control of enterprises, this paper will be based on the big data model usi...

Geckos achieve rapid and efficient adhesion and detachment on various surfaces within milliseconds due to the hierarchically structured fibrillar architecture of their toe pads. Extensive research has focused on developing adhesive materials that mimic these micro‐nano structures. However, no conventional adhesives have matched the performance of t...

Undulation is a form of propulsion in which waves of bending propagate along an elongated, slender body. This locomotor strategy is used by organisms that span orders of magnitude in size and represent diverse habitats and species. Despite this diversity, common neuromechanical phenomena have been observed across biologically disparate undulators,...

Parasites of the genus Plasmodium, responsible for lizard malaria, are widely distributed and taxonomically diverse. Molecular techniques provide valuable insights into the evolutionary relationships of Plasmodium species and lineages. However, the available data are still scarce, emphasizing the need for taxonomy-focused studies. We investigated t...

Animals need to recognize different individuals, both con- and heterospecifics, to make appropriate decisions. In the wild, responses to familiar individuals may vary depending on the context, which can be beneficial. However, differing responses towards human experimenters can influence experimental outcomes. Such effects might be particularly ove...

We analyzed the diet of the Collared Lizard (Tropidurus torquatus), characterizing it at a population level. Our study aimed to elucidate the differences in diet among three population classes: adult males, females (gravid and non-gravid), and juveniles. This study was conducted within Restinga habitat located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southe...

Pretraining a Multiple Instance Learning (MIL) aggregator enables the derivation of Whole Slide Image (WSI)-level embeddings from patch-level representations without supervision. While recent multimodal MIL pretraining approaches leveraging auxiliary modalities have demonstrated performance gains over unimodal WSI pretraining, the acquisition of th...

In a changing environment, characterized by human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC), understanding the impacts of environmental stressors on reptile species is crucial. Preferred body temperatures (PBT) and thermal performance curves (TPCs) are comprehensive thermal physiology traits reflecting overall physiological performance and crucial...

The oriental genus Labidolanguria Fowler, 1908, previously remained unknown in China, is revised in this study. A new species, Labidolanguria liangi Huang, sp. nov., is described and illustrated from the Xizang Autonomous Region. Two new combinations are proposed: Labidolanguria apicata (Zia, 1959), comb. nov., and L. sauteri (Fowler, 1913), comb....

The Sint-Pietersberg area, south of Maastricht (province of Limburg, the Netherlands), is the birthplace of mosasaurs; marine squamate lizards of latest Cretaceous age. Two partial skulls, recovered from subterranean galleries at Sint-Pieters-berg in 1764 and 1778, respectively, made scientists reflect on the possibility that organisms could actual...

This report summarizes the findings of the AutoAppendix project, conducted during the UCSC OSPO Summer of Reproducibility 2024. The project involved a evaluation of reproducibility artifacts submitted to SC24, focusing on their deployability and robustness on the Chameleon Cloud platform. This technical report aims to inform and support the reprodu...

This research presents a modification of the horned lizard optimization (HLO) algorithm to optimize proportional integral derivative (PID) parameters in direct current (DC) motor control. This hybrid method is called horned lizard optimization algorithm-aquila optimizer (HLAO). The HLO algorithm models various escape tactics, including blood sprayi...

Complex or naturalistic enclosures have become increasingly accepted as those best-suited to improve an animal’s welfare. However, designing such enclosures can be difficult if little is known about the animal in the wild, and enclosures that perfectly replicate nature must still be assessed to ensure their assumed benefits are realized. Therefore,...

Liolaemus lorenzmuelleri is a lizard endemic to Chile. Some authors indicated that its activity pattern was unimodal; however, no evidence was found to support this statement. The objective of this study was to verify the unimodal activity pattern of L. lorenzmuelleri, based on quantitative data. Thirty-five videos recorded between August and Decem...

The global trade in pet reptiles is substantial, with Japan being a major importer. Understanding pet reptile preferences is crucial for conservation, as over-exploitation of wild populations can occur. This study aimed to determine Japan's most popular pet reptiles, including traded and endemic species, using the largest question-answering website...

The International Axion Observatory (IAXO) is a next-generation axion helioscope designed to search for solar axions with unprecedented sensitivity. IAXO holds a unique position in the global landscape of axion searches, as it will probe a region of the axion parameter space inaccessible to any other experiment. In particular, it will explore QCD a...

As ectotherms highly sensitive to environmental temperature fluctuations, skinks (a small lizard) are increasingly vulnerable to population instability due to global heatwaves. A clade model analysis of four Chinese skink species (Plestiodon capito, Plestiodon chinensis, Sphenomorphus indicus, and Scincella modesta) revealed positive selection acti...

Salmonella is one of the most severe pathogens causing diseases in poultry and humans, and several factors could become transmission vectors in the husbandry environment. This study was conducted from April to July 2024 to clarify the prevalence of common Salmonella serovars in chickens and the husbandry environment and their pathogenicity and gene...

Haemosporidians constitute a monophyletic group of vector-borne parasites that infect a wide range of vertebrate hosts, including Neotropical lizards. The remarkable diversity of these host-parasite associations and inadequate research on certain parasite groups have resulted in controversial haemosporidian taxonomy. Herein, we rediscover erythrocy...

Pacemaker atrioventricular (AV) rings, continuous with the AV node, have been shown to be present in the mammalian and avian hearts. There is conspicuous lack of electrophysiological data on the cardiac pacemakers in reptiles. We aimed to characterize the AV ring in the common lizard heart for the first time using conventional microelectrode techni...

In this paper, the improved chameleon swarm algorithm (ICSA) enhances the exploration–exploitation balance while optimizing feature subset selection. The integration of Lévy flight‐based exploration refines ICSA's search strategy, complemented by rotation‐type refinement and adaptive parameter‐setting mechanisms. These modifications ensure that exp...

In a cloud storage system, the information is stored and secured through several encryption methods. Data redundancy is an important problem that affects data in the cloud and it enlarges large space in storage environments. Storing and managing a massive volume of information is exceedingly difficult. The existing method could not have the ability...

Hysterectomy is one of the most performed procedures for gynecological conditions worldwide. Ventrofixation of the uterus, a surgical technique where the uterus is fixed to the anterior abdominal wall, can complicate routine gynecological procedures, including hysterectomy. Performing a total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH) on a ventrofixed uterus...

The impact of air pollution on sustainable development and human health is a growing concern worldwide. To gauge air quality, monitoring stations are strategically positioned, but managing the vast amounts of sensor data they generate is challenging. Cloud data centers offer a promising solution for handling this big data, yet their resource alloca...

Escherichia coli NADPH-dependent assimilatory sulfite reductase (SiR) reduces sulfite by six electrons to make sulfide for incorporation into sulfur-containing biomolecules. SiR has two subunits: an NADPH, FMN, and FAD-binding diflavin flavoprotein and a siroheme/Fe4S4 cluster-containing hemoprotein. The molecular interactions that govern subunit b...

Understanding distribution and bioavailability of microplastics is vital for conducting ecological risk assessments (ERA) and developing mitigation strategies in marine environments. This study couples in situ data from Lizard Island (Great Barrier Reef) and numerical modelling and simulations to determine microplastic abundances in abiotic (water...

Article History: Received: 23 September 2024; Reviewed: 19 December 2024; Accepted: 27 January 2025; Available online: 26 March 2025. The role of music in the history of mankind is indisputable, not only as a means of communication, but also as an added value that cannot be reproduced, because music, by its very nature, defines the present moment i...

The structure of sarcomeres imposes limits to the capacity of striated muscle to change length and produce force, with z-disc and myosin filament interactions constraining shortening. Conversely, supercontracting muscles, hitherto only known among vertebrates in the tongue retractor muscle (m. hyoglossus) of chameleons, have perforated z-discs that...

Green iguanas ( Iguana iguana ), large-bodied lizards native to South and Central America, have established multiple invasive populations worldwide. Where established, invasive green iguanas have negative impacts on private property, agriculture and horticulture, infrastructure and human safety, and the natural environment. Most attempts to formall...

CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-based genome-wide functional genomics can be applied to uncover novel genes controlling an antiviral immune response, thereby augmenting antiviral immunity. To date, much progress has been made in understanding the host and viral factors influencing the antiviral immune response sin...

Laudakia papenfussi is a dorsoventrally compressed, saxicolous lizard of high elevation (3,050–3,300 m asl) rocky river valleys of the southwestern Tibetan Plateau (Zou et al. 2016; Huang 2019). It is omnivorous and often seems to exist as the sole reptilian species in its habitat (Zou et al. 2016). Despite its restricted range and some threat from...

The subject of research was a molecular cytogenetic investigation of the Hemidactylus frenatus or spiny-tailed house gecko. Ag-nucleolar organizer region (NOR) banding, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and conventional staining were used to mitotic chromosomes prepared directly from bone marrow. According to the findings, there were 40 di...

The cytogenetics of the southern short-horned tree dragon (Acanthosaura meridiona) are not reported yet. This study describes the karyotype of Acanthosaura meridiona Trivalairat, Sumontha, Kunya & Chaingkul, 2022 from southern Thailand. We using Giemsa staining, Ag-NOR banding, and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) techniques using microsat...

Monitoring Sand lizards at Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen Long-term standardized monitoring shows that sand lizards (Lacerta agilis) increased during the 1990s and the first decade of the twentyfirst century at Amsterdamse Waterleidingduinen, a 3.400 ha. lime-rich Dutch coastal dune system. Since then, the numbers of sand lizards have declined, loc...

Understanding how species survive at their poleward limits of distribution is of interest in species conservation, particularly in light of global warming and predictions of shifting distributions of both predators and prey species. How species adapt to high latitudes and to future climate changes will be impacted both by direct interactions with t...

Typically, randomness in evolutionary games is included by equipping the discrete deterministic replicator dynamics with Moran noise processes. Here, we extend this approach to obtain, from first principles, continuous evolution equations subject to white noise excitation. The modeling of these stochastic replicator dynamics will follow the approac...