New Lit Alert: Big cities, big bodies: urbanisation correlates with large body sizes and enhanced body condition in African dwarf chameleons (Genus: Bradypodion)

Big cities, big bodies: urbanisation correlates with large body sizes and enhanced body condition in African dwarf chameleons (Genus: Bradypodion) Jody M. Barends & Krystal A. Tolley Abstract Urbanisation is a major driver of habitat transformation that alters the environmental conditions and selective regimes of the habitats where it occurs. For species inhabiting urban habitats, such... Continue Reading →

October 22, 2024 0

Reptiles in the city: Should we welcome our reptilian overlords?

Think about a classic urban species. The first ones that come to mind are usually rats, pigeons and cockroaches. I’d bet that less than 10% of people reading this thought of a reptile. With cockroaches (and possibly ants) being the exception, most big names of the city are birds and mammals. Rats, mice, squirrels, (feral)... Continue Reading →

July 2, 2024 0

Life History of Teenage Mutant Painted Turtles

Danielle Sabin THE BACKGROUND When Splinter discovered four baby turtles in a New York City sewer, he had no idea what the glowing green goo was that covered their bodies. He simply cleaned them off and gave them a home. Shortly thereafter, these turtles grew very rapidly and mutated into anthropomorphic beings with proclivities for... Continue Reading →

February 17, 2023 0

Urban Observation: Winter Neighbors 2: Red-eared Slider

As this tepid winter sweeps through NYC, a few careful eyes may spot a peculiar sight lounging in the mid-afternoon sun of our urban park spaces. Turtles, out and about in the middle of December! This Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) was found on December 9, 2022, at 2:06 pm; it was one of nearly... Continue Reading →

January 27, 2023 0

Rapid Evolution of Urban Water Dragons

The growing field of urban evolutionary ecology studies the impact of urbanization on its resident species. Often, that involves comparisons between conspecific urban and non-urban populations. Jackson et al. took a different perspective in this study. They analyzed the divergence between populations living in adjacent but isolated city parks. They developed their study around a... Continue Reading →

January 18, 2023 0

New Lit Alert: Natural and anthropogenic landscape factors shape functional connectivity of an ecological specialist in urban Southern California

Natural and anthropogenic landscape factors shape functional connectivity of an ecological specialist in urban Southern California Sarah M. Wenner, Melanie A. Murphy, Kathleen S. Delaney, Gregory B. Pauly, Jonathan Q. Richmond, Robert N. Fisher, Jeanne M. Robertson Abstract Identifying how natural (i.e., unaltered by human activity) and anthropogenic landscape variables influence contemporary functional connectivity in... Continue Reading →

August 26, 2022 0

Urban Ecology & Evolution at JMIH!

The annual Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists is kicking off today and wow do I feel like I'm missing out! This year the conference has an impressive showing of urban research. Here's your guide for the week: Thursday 7/28 1:30pm — Boldness and behavioral syndromes across an urban gradient in the Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei) -... Continue Reading →

July 28, 2022 0

New Lit Alert: Morphological divergence, tail loss, and predation risk in urban lizards

Morphological divergence, tail loss, and predation risk in urban lizards Shashank Balakrishna, Madhura Sham Amdekar & Maria Thaker Abstract Urbanisation changes the structure of natural habitats and alters trophic interactions, pressuring urban species to adjust and adapt. Unlike behavioural shifts that tend to be more flexible, morphological characteristics in vertebrates are less plastic and changes may come... Continue Reading →

May 10, 2021 0

Metropolitan Lagartixas: Lizards Thriving in Tropical Brazilian City

From Anoles to Indian Agamids to Australian Water Dragons to Western Fence Lizards, lizards from diverse branches of the squamate tree are proving themselves in urban environments. Add one more species to this growing list of urban lizards: Brazilian lagartixas, Tropidurus hispidus. In a recent paper, Antonio de Andrade examined the abundance and habitat use of... Continue Reading →

October 29, 2019 3

Urban Observation of the Week: Trash Toad

Did you know that all toads are frogs but not all frogs are toads? Frogs are found in and near water while true toads are found on land. This toad was found on a pile of trash, still on land though! Thanks to Julia Riley for this great urban observation. Julia was also a co-author... Continue Reading →

August 21, 2019 0

Urban Ichs and Herps!

The annual Joint Meeting of Icthyologists and Herpetologists (JMIH) kicks off today in Snowbird, Utah. This is one of my favorite conferences so I'm sad I will not be attending this year. And unfortunately, none of our contributors are attending this meeting either this year (that I know of), so we will not be able... Continue Reading →

July 25, 2019 0

Tag: herpetology