Aristelliger barbouri

Number of Pages: 1Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Thecadactylus, T. rapicauda

Number of Pages: 16Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Aristelliger georgeensis

Number of Pages: 2Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Aristelliger

Number of Pages: 4Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Anolis garmani

Number of Pages: 3Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Repeated Evolution of Digital Adhesion in Geckos: A Reply to Harrington and Reeder

We published a phylogenetic comparative analysis that found geckos had gained and lost adhesive toepads multiple times over their long evolutionary history (Gamble et al., PLoS One, 7, 2012, e39429). This was consistent with decades of morphological studies showing geckos had evolved adhesive toepads on multiple occasions and that the morphology of geckos with ancestrally padless digits can be distinguished from secondarily padless forms. Recently, Harrington & Reeder (J. Evol. Biol., 30, 2017, 313) reanalysed data from Gamble et al. (PLoS One, 7, 2012, e39429) and found little support for the multiple origins hypothesis. Here, we argue that Harrington and Reeder failed to take morphological evidence into account when devising ancestral state reconstruction models and that these biologically unrealistic models led to erroneous conclusions about the evolution of adhesive toepads in geckos

Aristelliger praesignis

Number of Pages: 4Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Aristelliger lar

Number of Pages: 3Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Anolis grahami

Number of Pages: 4Integrative BiologyGeological Science

The larynx and trachea of the barking gecko, Ptenopus garrulus maculatus (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) and their relation to vocalization

Since its discovery by science almost 150 years ago, Ptenopus garrulus has been recognized as a highly vocal gekkonid. While this ability has been the subject of ecological and ethological investigations, and while its call has been sonographically analysed, the means of sound production has remained uninvestigated. This has been partly due to a lack of context in which to place morphological investigations of the gekkonid vocal apparatus. In recent years greater attention has been paid to the functional morphology of this system, and its form in Ptenopuscan now be evaluated in a comparative light. Herein we document the morphology of the larynx and trachea by way of dissection, histological investigation, computer-assisted three-dimensional reconstruction, and scanning electron microscopy. These investigations reveal a highly unusual structure of the laryngeal skeleton: the cricoid cartilage is a flattened plate of cartilage; the trachea is highly folded and inserted deeply into the larynx; the laryngeal constrictor muscle is asymmetrical in males; the vocal cords are horizontally disposed; the laryngeal aditus is also horizontal and is placed much more anteriorly than in any other geckos for which this relationship is known. Ptenopus garrulus maculatus exhibits the most anuran-like vocal apparatus yet discovered in gekkonids