Zootoca belly colour and reproductive strategy
Posted: Fri Dec 20, 2013 6:16 pmI just came across this (old) article:
http://www.livescience.com/1902-lizard- ... posed.html
what do you all make of this? shouldn't the 'altruistic' white-bellied males be able to recognise other white-bellies? (the 'greenbeard' effect) - also, does belly colour somehow link genetically with reproductive strategy? do lizards really assess each other's belly colours?
I'm going to look more carefully at the ventral colours of my local viviparous lizards next season, as I assumed that the males were all/mostly orange with dark spots, and females were all cream coloured.
grateful for any thoughts or field observations - thanks!
http://www.livescience.com/1902-lizard- ... posed.html
what do you all make of this? shouldn't the 'altruistic' white-bellied males be able to recognise other white-bellies? (the 'greenbeard' effect) - also, does belly colour somehow link genetically with reproductive strategy? do lizards really assess each other's belly colours?
I'm going to look more carefully at the ventral colours of my local viviparous lizards next season, as I assumed that the males were all/mostly orange with dark spots, and females were all cream coloured.
grateful for any thoughts or field observations - thanks!