After two hours of searching the cactus, aloe, and prickly acacia — sometimes crawling to get a better look at tree trunks and leaf litter — I counted exactly six
whiptail lizards, three toads, two geckoes, and one santanero.
An all - female species of
whiptail lizards presents a unique opportunity to test hypotheses regarding the nature and the evolution of sexual behavior
«In case of
the whiptail lizard in the New Mexican desert which consists only of females, a type of pseudo-copulation still takes place before eggs start developing, suggesting evolution places certain checks on completely eliminating sex and sexual behavior,» said Prof. Alexander Mikheyev, head of OIST's Ecology and Evolution Unit, the paper's co-author.
Since then, Crews has used
the whiptail lizard to study the evolution of behavior and the neurobiology of gender differences.
Hikers can expect to see a wide variety of fascinating wildlife including the Aruban burrowing owl (Shoco), Aruban rattlesnake, Aruban
whiptail lizard, and the Aruban parakeet (Prikichi).
Not exact matches
Pairs of female
whiptails sometimes engage in mock sex, which led to the nickname «lesbian
lizards» and seems to encourage the production of egg cells.
Living in the deserts of the U.S. Southwest and parts of northern Mexico, the New Mexico
whiptail is an all - female species of
lizard.
The creatures first arose as hybrids between two closely related species of sexually reproducing
lizards: the little striped
whiptail (A. inornata) and the tiger
whiptail (A. tigris).
Isla San Cosme has three species of reptiles: Aspidoscelis tigris (tiger
whiptail), Sauromalus ater (common chuckwalla), and Urosaurus nigricaudus (black - tailed brush
lizard).
In the
lizard world, vulnerable creatures that they are, there's the flying dragon, thorny devil,
whiptail, Jaragua sphaero, chuckwalla, and so on... all of them possess quite novel approaches to survival, such as the side - flap that gives the flying dragon its namesake, or the thorny devil with a mouth so wide it can consume thousands of ants in a single sitting.