What traits are we studying? Part 2

In our proposal, we mentioned we are studying two general types of traits: 1) scale type, and 2) morphology. In our previous lab note we discussed our hypothesis on the importance of scales type. 

What can we learn from an organism's morphology? Well, the short answer is, a lot! The long answer is here.

The morphology of an organism is strongly linked to it's performance or behavior (e.g., foraging ability) which in turn influences ecology (i.e., it's interactions with other organisms and the environment). We want to measure traits associated with feeding in these dwarf geckos, specifically their skull size and shape (see figure below). We think this strongly influences the size of prey they can effectively capture. Species on island ecosystems may have had new, but limited, prey resources available causing them to specialize in their morphology to increase their efficiency in prey capture.