| using effect size benchmarks to assess when alien impacts are actually alien. | alien predators have on average twice the impact on native prey populations than do native predators, and are a severe threat to wildlife globally. manipulation experiments can be used to quantify the impact of an alien predator on its prey population/s, but unless the results are compared to benchmarks, it is unclear whether this impact is indeed greater than that of a native predator. here we use the australian garden skink lampropholis delicata and alien black rat rattus rattus to test if bla ... | 2017 | 28128305 |
| biosecurity interceptions of an invasive lizard: origin of stowaways and human-assisted spread within new zealand. | globalization, and the resultant movement of animals beyond their native range, creates challenges for biosecurity agencies. limited records of unintentional introductions inhibit our understanding of the trade pathways, transport vectors and mechanisms through which hitchhiker organisms are spread as stowaways. here, we adopt a phylogeographic approach to determine the source and human-mediated dispersal pathways of new zealand's only invasive lizard, the delicate skink (lampropholis delicata), ... | 2012 | 23467589 |
| does personality influence learning? a case study in an invasive lizard. | learning is a change in state resulting from new experiences enabling behavioural responses to be adjusted in alignment with external cues. individuals differ in the speed and accuracy at which they learn. personality has been postulated as being a major influence on learning ability in terms of attention and encounter rates of environmental cues. this link forms the basis of the cognitive style hypothesis (csh), predicting that an individual's cognitive style will occur along a fast-slow behavi ... | 2017 | 29026996 |
| thermal physiology: a new dimension of the pace-of-life syndrome. | current syndrome research focuses primarily on behaviour with few incorporating components of physiology. one such syndrome is the pace-of-life syndrome (pols) which describes covariation between behaviour, metabolism, immunity, hormonal response, and life-history traits. despite the strong effect temperature has on behaviour, thermal physiology has yet to be considered within this syndrome framework. we proposed the pols to be extended to include a new dimension, the cold-hot axis. under this p ... | 2017 | 28626934 |
| phylogeographic divergence in the widespread delicate skink (lampropholis delicata) corresponds to dry habitat barriers in eastern australia. | the mesic habitats of eastern australia harbour a highly diverse fauna. we examined the impact of climatic oscillations and recognised biogeographic barriers on the evolutionary history of the delicate skink (lampropholis delicata), a species that occurs in moist habitats throughout eastern australia. the delicate skink is a common and widespread species whose distribution spans 26° of latitude and nine major biogeographic barriers in eastern australia. sequence data were obtained from four mito ... | 2011 | 21726459 |
| know when to run, know when to hide: can behavioral differences explain the divergent invasion success of two sympatric lizards? | invasive species represent a select subset of organisms that have successfully transitioned through each stage of the introduction process (transportation, establishment, and spread). although there is a growing realization that behavior plays a critical role in invasion success, few studies have focused on the initial stages of introduction. we examined whether differences in the grouping tendencies and exploratory behavior of two sympatric lizard species could contribute to their divergent inv ... | 2011 | 22393500 |
| impact of tail loss on the behaviour and locomotor performance of two sympatric lampropholis skink species. | caudal autotomy is an anti-predator behaviour that is used by many lizard species. although there is an immediate survival benefit, the subsequent absence of the tail may inhibit locomotor performance, alter activity and habitat use, and increase the individuals' susceptibility to future predation attempts. we used laboratory experiments to examine the impact of tail autotomy on locomotor performance, activity and basking site selection in two lizard species, the delicate skink (lampropholis del ... | 2012 | 22523555 |
| performance correlates of resting metabolic rate in garden skinks lampropholis delicata. | resting metabolic rates can vary greatly between individuals of the same species. these differences are generally repeatable and show moderate-to-high heritability, suggesting that they could be a target for natural selection. the present study therefore aimed to determine if inter-individual differences in resting metabolic rates (rmr) in garden skinks lampropholis delicata were associated with inter-individual differences in a suite of physiological and behavioural variables: aerobic capacity, ... | 2013 | 23334527 |
| does invasion success reflect superior cognitive ability? a case study of two congeneric lizard species (lampropholis, scincidae). | a species' intelligence may reliably predict its invasive potential. if this is true, then we might expect invasive species to be better at learning novel tasks than non-invasive congeners. to test this hypothesis, we exposed two sympatric species of australian scincid lizards, lampropholis delicata (invasive) and l. guichenoti (non-invasive) to standardized maze-learning tasks. both species rapidly decreased the time they needed to find a food reward, but latencies were always higher for l. del ... | 2014 | 24475097 |
| the effect of skin reflectance on thermal traits in a small heliothermic ectotherm. | variation in colour patterning is prevalent among and within species. a number of theories have been proposed in explaining its evolution. because solar radiation interacts with the pigmentation of the integument causing light to either be reflected or absorbed into the body, thermoregulation has been considered to be a primary selective agent, particularly among ectotherms. accordingly, the colour-mediated thermoregulatory hypothesis states that darker individuals will heat faster and reach hig ... | 2016 | 27503723 |
| repeatability and correlation of physiological traits: do ectotherms have a "thermal type"? | across a range of taxa, individuals within a species differ in suites of correlated traits. these trait complexes, known as syndromes, can have dramatic evolutionary consequences as they do not evolve independently but rather as a unit. current research focuses primarily on syndromes relating to aspects of behavior and life history. what is less clear is whether physiological traits also form a syndrome. we measured 10 thermal traits in the delicate skink,lampropholis delicata, to test this idea ... | 2017 | 28116065 |
| an experimental study of the effects of weed invasion on lizard phenotypes. | we examined how a weed affected the basking and activity of a diurnal lizard, and the potential cascading effects of these shifts for life history strategies and expression of morphology. hatchlings of the diurnal lizard lampropholis delicata were raised to maturity in outdoor enclosures that mimicked high, moderate and low invasion by a sprawling plant (blue periwinkle, vinca major). skinks depend on sunlight for growth and maintenance. periwinkle differs from displaced grassland by being struc ... | 2007 | 17541644 |
| development of the axial cartilaginous skeleton in the regenerating tail of lizards. | in order to study the pattern of growth of regenerating cartilage, h3-thymidine was injected in individuals of the lizards anolis carolinensis and lampropholis delicata during advanced stages of tail regeneration. light and electron microscopic autoradiographical analysis showed that the regenerating cartilaginous tube was mostly derived from the interstitial proliferation of chondroblasts. appositional growth is limited during the initial stages of cartilage formation. later, after the differen ... | 1995 | 7640411 |
| observations on proliferating sheath cells in the regenerating nerves of lizard. | the proliferation of sheath cells (schwann and endoneurium) of growing nerves has been studied by autoradiography after 3h-thymidine administration to lizards (anolis carolinensis and lampropholis delicata) with regenerating tails. schwann cells of regenerating nerves derive from the multiplication of resident cells within the growing nerves, but labelled schwann cells derived from the regenerative blastema also appear to ensheath the new axons. endoneurium cells of growing nerves derive from th ... | 1996 | 8930638 |
| eaten out of house and home: impacts of grazing on ground-dwelling reptiles in australian grasslands and grassy woodlands. | large mammalian grazers can alter the biotic and abiotic features of their environment through their impacts on vegetation. grazing at moderate intensity has been recommended for biodiversity conservation. few studies, however, have empirically tested the benefits of moderate grazing intensity in systems dominated by native grazers. here we investigated the relationship between (1) density of native eastern grey kangaroos, macropus giganteus, and grass structure, and (2) grass structure and rept ... | 2014 | 25501680 |