Lizard ecology

For about thirty years, researchers studying lizards have built much of their work around how these animals hunt for food. Across that period, the way a lizard forages has repeatedly emerged as a strong force in its evolution, influencing what it eats, how it moves and behaves, its body structure and the mechanics of its movements, its life cycle, and its internal physiology.

This 2007 collection gathers reviews of what is known about these effects. Its contributors examine many lizard groups across a broad range of species, tracing how the various systems have changed over time. A key finding presented here is that foraging strategies in lizards and snakes fall along a continuum rather than into fixed categories. The volume also takes up the long-standing debate between sit-and-wait and widely foraging strategies, offering new perspectives and suggesting directions for future research.

The book is intended as a reference for herpetologists, evolutionary biologists, ecologists, and animal behaviorists.