University project about the Uroplatus Genus

[Robin Skrumsager]

Hallo

I'm a biology student at The University of Copenhagen, and are about to write my bachlour project, and have been given the opportunity to write about gecko's. I have previous been keeping and breeding Uroplatus sp. and would like to work with this genus. i have talked to my proffesors, about some of my subjects and find it very interresting to be looking further into as I can lend geckosamples from across the world via the university. Thus I was thinking about taking on a problem in the uroplatus genus that could provide us with further information on how to keep and breed and destinguish the different species apart (as fx Uroplatus finiavana).

Thus if anybody have a specific problem that could be interrested looking further into let me know. As im having a meeting next week to finally determin my assignment.

I have tought about the following:
- Sexual Dimorphism in Uroplatus sp.
- Classify unindetified uroplatus sp. from the museeum archive.

please feel free to post a topic, that could be worth looking into.

Also I would like to ask everybody who have some information regarding uroplatus (any material are appriciated), to mail me it, so I can get the right entrance to the genus and go at the problem the most effective to get some usefull results.

 

[the moof]

The sexual dimorphism topic would be a good subject to look into Robin. Especially in Uroplatus henkeli. And potentially also U. phantasticus.

How are you going to get enough material though? You need about 20 males and females from the same location to establish any consistency in sexual dimorphism that we don't already know about. Captive specimens will not be useful, as they do not have locality data and probably represent several genetic lineages. As far as I know, no such dense sampling exists, and if it does, the material is almost certainly in use right now.

An osteological study might be interesting - do you have access to x-ray or microCT machines?

The resolution of unidentified Uroplatus species is currently being worked on, and highly I doubt it would fit into the scope of a bachelor's degree (it will hopefully become the topic of my PhD, and has already been the subject of Fano Ratsoavina's PhD). Certainly it would not be possible without extensive collaboration with Fano, Achille Raselimanana, Frank Glaw, Miguel Vences, Jörn Köhler, etc.

The reason we have not resolved species problems is a dearth of material, and not a lack of interest. Even bringing material in from other institutions, I doubt you would be able to make any real progress on any taxonomical issues.

If you are able to do genetic work, I recommend trying to get hold of genetic material and corresponding specimens from all the specimens of one species from one location that you can. Highest recommended would be all of the sikorae and sameiti material you can find from Montagne d'Ambre (or Ranomafana or Andasibe). You could then do a genetic study on the distinction between these two species in this location, and plot it also against, for example, the colour of the oral mucosa, tail shape, dermal fringe length, or even osteology, to see if there are consistencies.
Even this is probably much more than a year's worth of work though, and the genetic work alone would be expensive (though several specimens should already have had their COI regions sampled).

Your museum has only one Uroplatus specimen on record, so potential to work with material already at the museum is extremely limited. There are, of course, alternative genera to work with. Your university has hundreds of Hemidactylus and Gekko specimens.

 

[Robin Skrumsager]

Hey Mark

First off, thank you for your reply it means a lot and are nice to have someone looking at the subject the same way as I am.

Yes I do have access to an X-ray, so an osteological study might be possible. But I can imagine that the subject would be big for a bachelor’s degree.

Though the problem remains the same as you mentioned about not having an large enough sample size. I know we have some U. henkeli and an U. Fimbriatus in the collection, the reptile collection in general and especially the gecko collection needs to be taken care of, as there is no current reptile expert in Denmark and never have been the collection just sits there (unfortunately).

The sikorae and sameiti approach sounds very interesting, and might be an better approach as an bachelor project, I’ll look into it. And see If could be done regarding to available sample size.

By the way, do you might happen to have titles of some useful articles about the uroplatus sp.? I’ve currently got 8 articles but my supervisor wants me to have at least 50-70 articles read before starting the project so I got my basic in order.

Once again, thank you very much for taking your time to help me out, it is much appreciated.

 

[the moof]

Hey Robin,

sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

I think an osteological study of a particular feature would be interesting - and then it would be small enough to fit into the scope of your time period. You could look, for example, at variation in the extent of ossification of the sternum. Or the hyoid, if the xrays can show it. Or teeth numbers - Uroplatus have more teeth than any other known reptile. Another option would be to look specifically at toe bone features. Uroplatus have very unusual toes (their closest relatives have barely expanded toe pads).

Message me with your email, and I can send you some very good articles on Uroplatus. I believe I now have a copy of every article every published on them, though there may be some from the 19th century that I am still missing.

Best,
Mark

 

[Mother Lode Gecko]

Hey Robin

Good luck with your study it sounds ambitious however worth pursuing. I have had large bachelors studies that evolved into studies that grew to become much more. These have led to possible jobs and grad school opportunities. Good luck.

Best Regards
Jeremy A. Rich