Date of Award
Spring 2019
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Department/Major
Biology
First Advisor
Dr. Christopher Anderson
Second Advisor
Dr. Andrea Liebl
Third Advisor
Dr. David Swanson
Keywords
Anolis, adaptive radiation, whole-organism performance, muscle physiology
Abstract
Caribbean Anolis lizards have become a model system for the study of adaptive radiation and coevolution, whereby species have diversified, specializing to use different parts of the structural habitat in a manner that is repeated consistently on different islands. Unlike other Caribbean islands where different species have adapted to occupy different habitats, the island of Martinique is host to a single species, Anolis roquet, which has not yet undergone speciation. The island, however, has two very distinct Anolis habitats, a montane forest habitat on the interior of the island and a significantly geologically dissimilar xeric habitat nearer the coast of the island. The Anolis that occupy these differing habitats show considerable variation in their physical characteristics in one environment compared to the other, although they represent populations of a single species. This study therefore examined ecological adaptation and the effects that habitat variation has on Anolis adaptation in the absence of species level divergence. We analyzed data on sprint and bite performance of these two ecomorphs and measured their morphological proportions and muscle contractile physiology as the underlying mechanisms of possible variation within these movements.
Recommended Citation
Reiter, Patrick Alan, "Examining the Early Stages of Adaptive Radiation in Anolis Lizards from Martinique" (2019). Honors Thesis. 65.
https://red.library.usd.edu/honors-thesis/65