Sex Recognition in Anole Lizards

Shelby Stavins, Matthew Lovern

Abstract


Sexual selection is the process that furthers a species, and either improves the genetic variability or weakens it because the organisms go after appearance versus superior traits. In this experiment, the researchers studied the behavior between different sexes of juvenile brown Anole lizards to see if they displayed signs of sexual recognition. They hypothesized that there will be sexual recognition in the juvenile brown Anoles. The lizards were separated according to gender for the first couple of weeks so that they could mature to about 1 year old. Then, the lizards were housed one per cage and the trials were recorded. The trials consisted of 4 female v female, 5 male v male, and 7 female v male trials which were each 10 minutes long and each lizard only went one time per day. During these trials the lizards were numbered and were introduced into an existing lizard’s cage. The researchers stood 3 feet from the cages to avoid interfering with the displays and recorded the results from the trials. The results suggested that the juvenile brown Anole lizards were either too young to care, or too young to be able to differentiate between the sexes of the lizards they were exposed to; this caused the researchers to rejected their hypothesis.

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References


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