P. ornata from various localities around Mauritius. Clockwise from top right: Flat Island, mainland Mauritius near Tamarin, Gunner's Quoin, and Round Island.
| My work has shown a substantial amount of morphological and ecological variation among populations of P. ornata, especially those on the outlying islands. Geckos vary greatly in both size and shape, and their average structural habitat characteristics (i.e. perch height, perch diameter, etc.) vary between sites. With this project, I hope to uncover the factors which have led to this variation. I will combine genetic, morphological, ecological, and geographic information to try to explain the striking patterns of variation in this species. |
P. ornata from various localities around Mauritius. Clockwise from top right: Flat Island, mainland Mauritius near Tamarin, Gunner's Quoin, and Round Island. |
 Mountains near Black River Gorges National Park, Mauritius, where four species of day geckos (Phelsuma ornata, P. cepediana, P. guimbeaui, and P. rosagularis) can be found. |
Little is known about the structure of day gecko communities. In communities of other diurnal lizard species, sympatric species often partition their structural habitat (i.e. perch height and diameter). Such structural habitat partitioning does not seem to be common in nocturnal gecko species. In my work, I am investigating day gecko communities of differing composition to see how sympatric species are able to coexist. My preliminary data suggests that, despite their nocturnal gecko ancestry, day geckos partition their habitat similarly to other diurnal lizard species groups, such as Anolis. I will be presenting some of these results at the 2004 Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. |