1. The morphological feature is the body size of a reptile Chlamydosaurus kingii also known as the frilled lizard. This is from the class Reptilia, order Squamata, family Agamidae and subfamily Amphibolurinae. The morphological trait is the body size used during bipedal motion as a secondary prey defense strategy. The average body size of a Chlamydosaurus kingii is 85cm from head to tail. The hypothesis for the adaptive significance of a long body is to aid in ability to flee from a disturbance. A larger body may allow for increased velocity to be attained in times of threat to the lizard. A bipedal style of running is used when fleeing after a sufficient level of velocity has been reached (Shine. R and Lambeck. R, 1989). The advantage to a longer body as opposed to a shorter body would be the muscles available to aid in the generation of a high velocity in a short amount of time. Looking at the evidence that exists the focus is on the frilled necks and their adaptive significance in predator warning signaling. Some of this evidence produced as an outcome of these experiments is still useful. It was determined that the bipedal form was used when needing an increase in velocity in a quick response. This was determined though close watching of the lizards in their habitat monitoring their behaviour. When prey was close the bipedal form …show more content…
This could have some bias as it would have more success in the primary defensive strategy so it would be less likely to have the opportunity to observe large body success in prey avoidance. Therefore a good solution would be to have the experiment include inhibiting safely the frilled neck so it was unable to be used on both small and large body sized lizards and then look at escape results. This would involve attaching the item that is securing down the frill neck be placed unused on the active frill neck for a controlled