The Amazing Diversity of Life

I swear that one of these days I'll get to the "sweaters" bit of this whole blog.  In the meantime, I'm going to go on a bit about lizards.

I want to post about the amazing thing that is diversity of life on this planet.  Seriously, this is something that blows my mind every time I think about it which, nerd that I am, is probably every 20 minutes or so.

We've found that two of our lizards, Sydney the skink and Grendel the leachie, are a stunning example of biodiversity and adaptation to a specific environment. 



One of the beautiful things about this comparison is that they are very similar in many ways.  They are both highly evolved lizards, with specialization closely adapted to their environment and mode of life.  They are both omniverous, and both skinks and geckos are found in most parts of the world.  Blue-tongued skinks and New Caledonia giant geckos are both from the largest genus in their families.  Our two dear lizards are approximately the same size and same age, making a visual comparison very easy and very striking.

Let's start with the skink.



Skinks are considered by some people to be the step between snakes and lizards.  Most have small, stumpy legs, and some have gotten rid of their legs altogether.  Sydney is a blue-tongued skink.  Her species is diurnal, and adapted to life in the hotter, drier parts of Australia.

And of course we've already met the gecko.



Geckos are an arboreal species, adapted to life primarily in warm, wet climates.  All but one genus of geckos have gotten rid of their eyelids.  They have highly specialized feet that actually use fancy-ass physics (van der Waals force) to cling to any surface imaginable.  Grendel, as I've said, is a New Cledonian giant gecko, adapted to life in the rainforests of the island chain of New Caledonia.

Check them out side by side.

Sydney's legs are short and stumpy, with tiny little fingers that can easily be pulled out of the way.  Grendel, on the other hand, has huge flat feet the better for clinging to the side of a tree.  Sydney's scales are hard and smooth, the better for deflecting heat, whereas Grendel's skin is soft and wrinkly and velvety.  Her skin doesn't hold moisture so well, but the wrinkles make an excellent camouflage, breaking up the shape of her body and making her look like a patch of moss on a tree trunk. 


 Sydney's eyes are small and lidded to protect them from sand and sun.  Grendel's are huge (and kind of freaky), for seeing in the dark.  Sydney's tail is long and pointed, good for a species that spends most of its time digging through the dirt.  Grendel's tail is short and stubby and even a little prehensile, allowing her better purchase on the branches where she makes her home.  They both have a spotty-stripey pattern to them, but the difference in their colors has an obvious correlation to the environment they live in.

In short, biodiveristy is totally cool, and it's stupidly exciting to have such a fine example of it in our house.











As a side note, both these fantastic lizards are incredibly grumpy.  And both are very, very well-loved.

(Point of interest: there are three lizards in this picture.  Myself not included. :) )