The island of extremes: Giants and dwarfs on a small remote island

Yuval Itescu; Johannes Foufopoulos; Rachel Schwarz; Petros Lymberakis; Alex Slavenko; Ioanna Aikaterini Gavriilidi; Shai Meiri; Panayiotis Pafilis

doi:10.30906/1026-2296-2021-28-4-225-230

The island of extremes: Giants and dwarfs on a small remote island

Yuval Itescu^*, Johannes Foufopoulos, Rachel Schwarz, Petros Lymberakis, Alex Slavenko, Ioanna Aikaterini Gavriilidi, Shai Meiri, Panayiotis Pafilis

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Zoology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Body size evolution on islands is widely studied and hotly debated. Gigantism and dwarfism are thought to evolve under strong natural selection, especially on small remote islands. We report a curious co-occurrence of both dwarf and giant lizards on the same small, remote island (Plakida): the largest Podarcis erhardii (Lacertidae) and smallest Mediodactylus kotschyi sensu lato; Gekkonidae — the two commonest insular reptiles in the Aegean Sea. The geckos of Plakida have a peculiar tail-waving behavior, documented here for the first time in this genus. We suspect that P. erhardii evolved large size to consume geckos and the geckos evolved a unique tail-waving behavior as a defensive mechanism.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	225-230
Number of pages	6
Journal	Russian Journal of Herpetology
Volume	28
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.30906/1026-2296-2021-28-4-225-230
State	Published - 2021

Keywords

Aegean Sea islands
Body size
Geckos
Lizards
Tail autotomy
Tail waving

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10.30906/1026-2296-2021-28-4-225-230

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title = "The island of extremes: Giants and dwarfs on a small remote island",

abstract = "Body size evolution on islands is widely studied and hotly debated. Gigantism and dwarfism are thought to evolve under strong natural selection, especially on small remote islands. We report a curious co-occurrence of both dwarf and giant lizards on the same small, remote island (Plakida): the largest Podarcis erhardii (Lacertidae) and smallest Mediodactylus kotschyi sensu lato; Gekkonidae — the two commonest insular reptiles in the Aegean Sea. The geckos of Plakida have a peculiar tail-waving behavior, documented here for the first time in this genus. We suspect that P. erhardii evolved large size to consume geckos and the geckos evolved a unique tail-waving behavior as a defensive mechanism.",

keywords = "Aegean Sea islands, Body size, Geckos, Lizards, Tail autotomy, Tail waving",

author = "Yuval Itescu and Johannes Foufopoulos and Rachel Schwarz and Petros Lymberakis and Alex Slavenko and Gavriilidi, {Ioanna Aikaterini} and Shai Meiri and Panayiotis Pafilis",

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doi = "10.30906/1026-2296-2021-28-4-225-230",

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AU - Itescu, Yuval

AU - Foufopoulos, Johannes

AU - Schwarz, Rachel

AU - Lymberakis, Petros

AU - Slavenko, Alex

AU - Gavriilidi, Ioanna Aikaterini

AU - Meiri, Shai

AU - Pafilis, Panayiotis

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

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AB - Body size evolution on islands is widely studied and hotly debated. Gigantism and dwarfism are thought to evolve under strong natural selection, especially on small remote islands. We report a curious co-occurrence of both dwarf and giant lizards on the same small, remote island (Plakida): the largest Podarcis erhardii (Lacertidae) and smallest Mediodactylus kotschyi sensu lato; Gekkonidae — the two commonest insular reptiles in the Aegean Sea. The geckos of Plakida have a peculiar tail-waving behavior, documented here for the first time in this genus. We suspect that P. erhardii evolved large size to consume geckos and the geckos evolved a unique tail-waving behavior as a defensive mechanism.

KW - Aegean Sea islands

KW - Body size

KW - Geckos

KW - Lizards

KW - Tail autotomy

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ER -

The island of extremes: Giants and dwarfs on a small remote island

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