Sceloporus Lizards Tell Us About Our Ecosystems

Lizards are incredibly important to our ecosystems. They help with nutrient cycling by acting as predators and prey. And they alert us to changes to the environment.

Look at how grey this lizard's scales look. The old skin has detached from the new one. The tail has already shed.

Our very own western fence lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis, has become a model organism for understanding the impacts of climate change and urbanization on small vertebrates. To further aid in research, Bishop et al created a 98.1% complete genome reference.

This reference will help scientist so seethe ecological and evolutionary change over time of not only the western fence lizard but also other Sceloporus lizards.

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