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Collecting Lizards for
Comparative Studies of Physiology
& Morphology |
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Joe Ehrenberger headed east to
collect fence lizards with Priya Date and Marcin Czarnoleski (not shown).
Their first stop was Florida. |
Florida's
forests are home to many lizards, but fence lizards are one
of the rarer species. |
In the southeastern U.S., green anoles
greatly outnumber fence
lizards. Some days you can see dozens of green anoles and
not a single fence lizard. |
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Joe looked high
and low for several days before having any luck. |
Joe stretches to noose a lizard.
It's a boy! |
Base camp provided a quiet place
to process lizards before returning them to the wild.
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Marcin draws blood by inserting
a capillary tube into a sinus behind the eye. As painful as
this sounds, lizards don't seem to suffer during the
procedure. |
If you think only vampires and
lawyers are natural blood suckers, you should see Marcin
pipette lizard blood with his mouth. |
Marcin worked well into the
night to collect blood samples from every lizard. |
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In South Carolina, lizards were
plentiful in areas that were recently cleared to provide
habitat for quail. |
The Pine Barrens
of New Jersey represents a unique ecosystem, which is close
to the northern edge of the fence lizard's range. |
Base camp in New Jersey was
defended by a fire, just in case those stories about the
Jersey Devil were true. |
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After the eastern tour, the crew
headed west, stopping in Arizona (above), Utah
and Nebraska. |
The landscape of
Arizona changes dramatically as one goes from low to high
elevation. |
Arizona is home to a subspecies
of Sceloporus undulatus (S. u. tristichus)
that has an interesting dorsal pattern. |
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Marcin was a long way from
Poland. The southwestern United States became his playground
away from home. Whether he was examining the flora (left),
photographing the fauna (middle), or imitating the locals
(right), Marcin seemed to enjoy being a stranger in a
strange land. |
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From Arizona, Joe and Marcin
headed north to Utah. The scenery got even better. |
Rocky outcrops were great places
to capture fence lizards and other reptiles. |
Joe attempts to
noose a fence lizard perched on a rock. |
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A collared
lizard stands its ground, as if to say, "I know you guys are only
trying to capture fence lizards." |
Joe should have been lifting
with his knees. Well, at least he got the lizard. |
The distant mountains made the
scenery even more distracting than usual. Could this be why
so many lizards got away? |
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Base camp in Utah offered a
stunning view. |
The grasslands of Nebraska was
the final destination on the tour. |
Back in the lab, Marcin,
perfused lizards with formalin to preserve the
tissues. |
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During a perfusion, a needle was
inserted into the heart, which
distributed formalin throughout the body. |
This closeup
shows the beating heart of a male lizard during the process
of perfusion. |
After preserving tissues,
Christine Foulkes harvested organs for histological studies. |
