Dr. Stanley Fox
Regents Professor of Zoology
Courses
ZOOL 5112 Advanced Herpetology
ZOOL 5123 Behavioral Ecology
ZOOL 5133 Evolutionary Ecology
Research Interests:
1) Social organization in lizards as relating to the environment:
a) ontogenetic modifications under short-term temporal differences of competition
and predation, and
b) evolutionary adaptations under long-term differences of competition, predation,
and thermal rigor.
2) Social cost of tail autotomy in lizards; tails as status-signaling badges.
3) Sexual selection in collared lizards (Crotaphytus collaris).
4) Negative effects of UVB radiation on developing embryos of
native frog and toad species:
a) Survival, growth, and teratology
b) DNA damage and repair mechanisms
5) Local and landscape-level habitat parameters controlling herp communities
(1) In general, I advance and utilize a field-experimental approach to the field of behavioral ecology, mostly employing lizards as model subjects. I previously explored the individual advantage of different social roles and the associated behavioral ecology of juvenile Uta stansburiana of the Chihuahuan Desert of North America. I manipulated habitat, aggressiveness, and the selective pressures of predation and competition in the field to assess individual fitness. I have conducted a comparative study of social organization of Liolaemus lizards along a steep elevational gradient in the Andes of central Chile. I found that predation and thermal rigor were inversely related to elevation, whereas development of social organization was directly related to elevation. I also carried out a similar elevational comparative study of lizards of Mexico to see if a similar pattern of elevation, environment, and social organization is found in a tropical site compared to the temperate one of Chile.
(2) I am also exploring the use of the tail in lizards as a status-signaling badge associated with the social cost of tail autotomy. I have found that both male and female U. stansburiana lose social status following tail autotomy, but only females appraise social rank solely from the opponent's relative size. This sexual dimorphism of badge quality relates to the extent of sexual selection in this species. I would like to survey other lizard (and salamander) species to see how general is this relationship of social status, tail autotomy, badge signal value, and sexual selection.
(3) I have completed a long-term field and laboratory study of sexual selection in Crotaphytus collaris in Oklahoma. Within the state there is a marked difference in the degree and kind of sexual dimorphism among geographically separated populations of this species. Collaborators and I were able to quantify the different selection pressures that have led to the observed levels of sexual dimorphism. Field and laboratory observations and experiments were employed to measure the intrasexual and intersexual components of sexual selection, as well as levels of parasitism, predation, and differential niche utilization by the two sexes. Sexual dimorphism in the populations is a complicated mosaic across multiple characters and evidence for multiple models of sexual selection was found.
(4) There is recent evidence that some species of frogs and toads are negatively affected by ultra-violet (B) radiation that is increasing globally because of the thinning of the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. I am currently finishing a project that quantifies survival, growth, teratology, and DNA damage and repair mechanisms in developing anuran embryos. I compare these organismal endpoints in native anurans exposed to very high levels of UVB radiation (compared to field controls that are masked to UVB by mylar sheeting) in the southern cone of South America versus those exposed to normal levels of UVB in mid-latitudes of Argentina and Oklahoma.
(5) I am currently engaged in a long-term study of the relative effect of different local and landscape-level habitat features in reptile and amphibian communities. We have collected community data on four large forested watersheds in north-central Arkansas, built multivariate models of community composition using canonical correspondence analysis, and will attempt to use the CCA models (plus neural network models) to predict changes in herp communities following large-scale silvicultural manipulations.
Fox Page - OSU Zoology Department
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