Jamiacan Lizards Can Do More Push Ups Than You

August 28th, 2008

Something that has never been discovered in nature before was seen and studied recently. Although birds chirp, and frogs croak to give a Proactiv indication of coming dusk/dawn, scientists have never seen any animal show physical signs that one of the two are approaching.

Lizards have been observed doing push-ups, head bobs, and threatening extension of a colorful neck flap called a dewlap — to defend their territory at dawn and dusk. the lizards are the first known animal to make physical displays everyday at dusk and dawn.

Terry J. Ord, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology and at the University of California, Davis, describes the Anolis lizards’ unusual morning ritual in a forthcoming issue of the journal American Naturalist.

“Anoles are highly visual species, so in that sense it’s not surprising that they would use visual displays to mark territory,” Ord says. “Still, the finding is surprising because these are the first animals known to use non-acoustic signaling at dawn and dusk.”

“These patterns have remarkable parallels with the dawn and dusk choruses reported for many acoustically communicating animals,” Ord says.

“The dawn chorus may be a way of communicating having survived the night,” Ord says. “If in the morning a bird doesn’t hear its neighbor, or an anole doesn’t see its neighbor, it may be an opportunity for the animal to expand its territory.”

“All of these behaviors are displays of physical vigor,” Ord says. “As in humans, if an anole can do many of these push-ups it shows that he is in prime physical condition. These displays of strength help avert actual physical confrontations between male lizards, which can be very fierce and destructive.”

Isn’t nature amazing?