Meeting Abstract

S11.6  Friday, Jan. 7  The Evolution of Gliding Performance in Flying Lizards (Draco) MCGUIRE, J A*; DUDLEY, R; Univ. of California, Berkeley mcguirej@berkeley.edu

The flying lizards of the genus Draco are arboreal gliders that occur throughout the dipterocarp-dominated rainforests of SE Asia. The assemblage is comprised of approximately 45 species, all of which share a similar, highly specialized morphology involving elongated thoracic ribs and enlarged throat lappets used for generating lift forces during gliding (as well as for territorial and mating displays). Flying lizards exhibit substantial interspecific body size variation (encompassing approximately one order of magnitude) and this size variation has important implications for gliding locomotor performance contingent upon interspecific patterns of allometry. We present phylogenetically-corrected analyses of Draco scaling relationships and gliding performance, and discuss the ecological context of body size evolution and gliding.