Zoology team receives National Science Foundation grant

Thursday, September 5, 2013

A team of researchers from the Oklahoma State University Department of Zoology has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to begin a four-year study that could open the door to a new understanding of sexual selection in our official state reptile.  Stanley Fox, Jennifer Grindstaff, Matthew Lovern and Ronald Van Den Bussche will investigate the development of sexual selection in collared lizards – a species designated as the state reptile of Oklahoma in 1969.  

Sexual selection is a type of natural selection that refers to the process by which animals express traits that will either make them more appealing to potential mates or drive away mate rivals.  In this study, the researchers will look specifically at hatchling male collard lizards who develop bright orange bars on the sides of their body and express aggression toward other hatchling males but not toward hatchling females with whom they begin to form pair bonds for later mating.  In many animal species, these types of appearance and behavior differences occur at puberty.  However in this species, these changes happen long before the young lizards are mature enough to mate.  

The researchers will use biochemical, genetic, molecular and field experimental approaches to document the hormones responsible for the development of the early sexual differences in this species and the genetic advantages expressed later in life.  They hypothesize this early sexual selection will allow lizards with the orange bars to produce more offspring, but they will also evaluate the costs.  For example, do the bars make the lizards more visible to predators and to prey?  Does the energy required to produce the bright orange color compromise their immune system in any way?  Essentially, what are the tradeoffs to this precocious sexual prowess?

Fox, a regents professor, believes the research should spur more investigation of early sexual differentiation and plant a paradigm shift in evolutionary ecology.  “This might be a phenomenon that’s more widespread than anyone ever thought,” Fox said.

He believes results could apply broadly, even to humans.  “It’s important that we know more about the life around us,” Fox said.  “Any developed culture is earmarked by its search for knowledge.”

The team will use as subjects a population of lizards living along the dam at Sooner Lake, which is about 30 miles from Stillwater. 

For more details on this project visit http://zoology.okstate.edu/news/zoology-news/270-zoology-team-awarded-500-000-grant