Lizard lungs!

You probably haven't heard me go on and on about how awesome Colleen Farmer's seminar at UMass was so you will hopefuly bear with me that here I am posting links to the coolest little write-ups she and her lab are getting in Science News, Phys.org and Science Daily etc...!  I thought that even though they are not bats you might be interested in this finding of how air flows in the lungs of monitor lizards its a slick study with exciting findings.  Colleen Farmer is an Evolutionary Physiologist who has primarily worked with crocodilians and other 'herps*' but she is very integrative so it is difficult to put her research in a nicely labeled box.  The first author Emma is a postdoc working in Dr. Farmer's lab and has a really cool website.

 

*Herp: in the biological world refers to reptiles and amphibians and comes from the from Greek root aherpet-, meaning "creeping". Along these lines one could be a Herpatologist (study amphibians and reptiles) or go 'herping' i.e.. look for amphibians and/or reptiles.

 

The citation of this new paper is below but the doi doesn't work yet so expect more soon!:

Emma R. Schachner, Robert L. Cieri, James P. Butler & C. G. Farmer. Unidirectional pulmonary airflow patterns in the savannah monitor lizard. Nature, 2013 DOI: 10.1038/nature12871

Write ups:
http://beforeitsnews.com/science-and-technology/2013/12/unidirectional-airflow-in-the-lungs-of-birds-crocsand-now-monitor-lizards-2658958.html

http://phys.org/news/2013-12-mystery-lizard-one-way-airflow-million.html

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/lizard-breath-has-surprising-birdlike-flow



Ok for no particular reason this song seems to 'fit' this cool finding (beat not lyrics)!  I mean it has to be something with a big presence so here you go. 

Trinidad bats

Hello from Trinidad where the bats are flying and the rain (today) is falling!  Here are a few photos to enjoy including my first observation of a bat-lizard interaction!

Ok so the bat and lizard are NOT actually 'interacting' but rather the bat is flying past the lizard.  The bat and lizard were living in the same roost. 

Crowd funding and hemipenes

I know its been some time since I've posted a blog- but- it is time!  Why you might ask?  Well primarily because I have a few minutes to catch my breath and more importantly tell you about an exciting project that has been listed on Rockethub for crowd funding.

(If you need an photo to grab your curiosity look no further!)

Photo: C. Gilman (from http://www.rockethub.com/projects/21959-hemipenes-evolutionary-novelty-or-a-new-twist-on-an-old-trick)

This lovely project titled Hemipenes: evolutionary novelty, or a new twist on an old trick will investigate the development of hemi...wait did I say pens? that sounds sort of like 'penis'...  yes hemipens!  That's right two penises!  Lizards happen to have two (as do other squamates) but how do these two functional intermittent organs develop?  Do they develop the same way that a usual 'ol penis does?  Well- my dear friend and labmate Casey Gilman - has a project ready to go to find out!  Stop by her Rockethub page to see her COOL video to learn more!  (For example- do you find yourself curious if they use both at once?  Go to find out by watching Casey's video)!

Why should you care about hemipenes? 

Well according to Casey a PhD candidate at UMass Amherst "Because of differences in general morphology (two versus one), and some observable differences during development, hemipenes have been considered by some to be an evolutionary novelty. However, there is still no agreement about whether hemipenes and the single penis found in other amniotes are homologous (that is, they come from a common ancestor), or are indeed novel."