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Science 19 March 1982:
Vol. 215. no. 4539, pp. 1509 - 1511
DOI: 10.1126/science.215.4539.1509
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Articles

Convergent and Alternative Designs in the Digital Adhesive Pads of Scincid Lizards

E. E. WILLIAMS 1 and J. A. PETERSON 2

1 Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
2 Department of Biology, University of California, Los Angeles 90024

Prasinohaema virens, an arboreal scincid lizard, differs from its closest relatives in that it exhibits subdigital adhesive setae resembling those of anoles in shape and those of geckos in some aspects of size. The other scincid species in this genus as well as those in a presumed ancestral genus exhibit pad scales with surface folds and ruffles but no setae; at least one of these species uses an adhesive grip similar to that of anoles and geckos. Thus, there appear to be two strikingly different epidermal specializations for adhesive grip within this small radiation.

Submitted on October 9, 1981


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