ARIZONA's desert comes with its own four-legged thermometer: the male striped tree lizard
Adult male lizards have coloured patches on each side of their belly and throat, which are used to ward off other males and to attract females. The patches were already known to change colour, but herpetologist Randall Morrison and his team at Hood College, Maryland, wondered whether the change was dependent on temperature. They monitored how the colour of the patches altered as the morning progressed. At 28 °C they were a dull green, but when the temperature had risen a few degrees they began to turn turquoise. At 36 °C they were a bright cobalt blue.
Morrison's team ...
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