Common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) inhabits diverse habitats. In different habitats they can develop adaptations to local environment. In the study we compared lizards from natural and urban habitat, which had different coverage and density of vegetation and different inclination of ground.
We described morphometric characteristics and locomotor performance for both sexes from both habitats and found out weather there are differences among them. We measured six morphometric parameters and in laboratory experiment we have measured the fastest sprint speed on horizontal and vertical surface.We assumed that lizards from natural habitat, where vegetation is scarce and ground is steeper will have longer limbs and will perform faster maximum speed than lizards from urban habitat where vegetation is more dense and ground mostly flat. On the contrary, we have found that urban lizards had longer hind limbs and acquire higher maximum sprint speed on flat and sloped surface than lizards from natural habitat. We have also found that there were differencies between sexes with males having longer hind libms and bigger heads. Only in lizards from natural habitat, females also had longer trunks than males.
|
