One of my primary passions is studying the evolution of colour and how that affects behaviour and ecology. But instead of looking to birds as our teachers today, we are looking at colourful little reptiles that live on the island paradise of Ibiza in the
One of my primary passions is studying the evolution of colour and how that affects behaviour and ecology. But instead of looking to birds as our teachers today, we are looking at colourful little reptiles that live on the island paradise of Ibiza in the Balearic Archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. In this film by graduate student, Nate Dappen, and his colleagues, we look at Mr Dappen's research on how male and female Ibiza wall lizards, Podarcis pityusensis, have coevolved despite having two different "agendas" to ensure the survival of each sex and to maximise their reproductive success:
Mr Dappen is working on his PhD in evolutionary biology at the University of Miami, where he studies sexual coevolution and colour evolution in the Ibiza wall lizard, Podarcis pityusensis. You can learn more about another aspect of this species' natural history by watching this award-winning video that I shared a few months ago, also by Mr Dappen and Day's Edge Productions: Cold-blooded cannibals.
Film by Nate Dappen & Neil Losin. Additional photography by Joris van Alphen. Narrated by John Astbury. See credits for music.
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