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At long last, the final paper from my PhD thesis, with Allen Allison from @bishopmuseum and @uncshai, out now in @AnimalEcology!
So what is the paper about, and why are PNG skinks the best? a thread (1/n) https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2656.13420
So what is the paper about, and why are PNG skinks the best? a thread (1/n) https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2656.13420
Let's start with the skinks themselves. PNG is a haven of biodiversity, home to ~100 species of skinks. Here are examples of just a few of them, and as you can see, they come in many shapes and sizes. (2/n)
While none have lost their limbs (unlike their Aussie cousins), there's still a lot of variation in relative limb length - but also in general body size and shape, as well as in head size and shape. (3/n)
Skinks are also unique among PNG herps in where they're found, which is basically everywhere. You can find them from sea level, all the way up to at least 3,800 metres above sea level - quite impressive altitudes, where temperatures can drop to really uncomfortable levels! (4/n)
And it's not just the climate that changes, but also the habitat. A lot of the montane skinks are found in open habitats, like this cool mixed fern-grassland patch on the upper slopes of Mt Victoria (5/n)
So the idea here was simple - let's look at how morphology changes across PNG. We measure skinks, and we see how the entire morphospace, or the range of morphologies occupied by the species in the assemblage, changes between assemblages of species in different places in PNG (6/n)
We also tested what best explains the variation in morphology - the number of species (and also the number of potentially competing species), or elevation (which influences climate, habitat structure, etc.) (7/n)
And, well, it's elevation. You go up the mountains, the morphospace becomes smaller, and more tightly packed - basically all the "weird" skinks are in the lowlands, and the highland skinks are all stuck doing the same thing, morphologically speaking (8/n)
And in the high elevations, skinks typically tend to be smaller, thinner, and with shorter limbs. Our best bet is that is has to do with adaptation to high elevation habitats, since there's very little evidence of competition influencing actual trait divergence here (9/n)
Unfortunately, there's still a lot we don't know. PNG herps are massively understudied, and very poorly known. And that's a shame, because they're such cool animals, with a lot of interesting biological phenomena going on! (10/n)
You've got skinks that live on the coast and forage for crustaceans in the ocean, aquatic skinks that dive into river streams, skinks that lay eggs in communal nests in the mountains, several (!) lineages of green-blooded (!!) skinks, etc. (11/n)
So I guess the main take-away is - these are remarkable animals, and we should study them more. Because we're doing a disservice to the entire world if we continue to neglect them.
fin (12/n)
fin (12/n)
