Science Cartoon on Effect of Global warming on Lizards

Science Cartoon on Effect of Global warming on Lizards

      Global warming need no introduction. Even primary students can write an essay on it. Effects of global warming on various organisms are always subject of interest to the scientists worldwide and is the need of the day.

     Lizards, being an amphibian, highly prone to change in temperature, affected a lot by global warming. The effect of global warming on the metabolism of the lizard is well known, but recent studies reveal that the effect of more than studied previously. A study by the team
​of biologists led Arizona State University investigators is alarming  for conservators and environmentalists. Earlier studies were focused on the metabolism of lizards, but one of the important stages, embryonic stage was ignored. They discovered that lizard embryos die when subjected to a temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit  (43.34 C) even for a few minutes.

     "Lizards put all of their eggs in one basket, so a single heat wave can kill an entire group of eggs," said Ofir Levy, lead investigator of the study. They studied North American Lizard and found that If lizard mothers will not dig deeper nests to lay their eggs, it is expected that this species may  decline from the United States."
 

Their findings appear online in Proceedings of the Royal Society B  on 19 August 2015.
 

I am presenting a cartoon based on the above research. Feel free to share it because it is available under Creative Common License 4.0 for non commercial use.

Science Cartoon "Climate Change Can Cause Animals to Switch Sex"

 Science Cartoon "Climate Change Can Cause Animals to Switch Sex"

A team of ecologists lead by Professor Arthur Georges has proven that temperature, not just genetics, plays a role in determining the sex of Australian bearded dragons. Their findings were published today in the journal Nature.
     In humans, XX chromosome is found in women and XY in men. It is an established fact. Similarly for Australian lizards a ZZ/ZW system of chromosomal sex determination. A ZZ is male and a ZW is female. Prof. George and his team collected 131 samples of Australian lizards and found that 11 out of 131 samples collected were genetically male but anatomically female. Further, they found that  they could reproduce and often became supermoms within their population. It means genetically male is behaving like anatomical mother. Such kind of mess up is credited to account of global warming. Whether it will be useful in terms of sustainability, adaptability and evolution are unknown.
Here I am presenting cartoon based on the above fact.