#there was a brief moment where I thought my entire career would be lizard malaria

[markscherz]

check out this neat little guy i found in a park in northern california! he was iridescent, so cool!

Pretty sure this is a Sceloporus, which are just awesome lizards. Did you get a chance to see the belly? Because it can be just *stunning*.

[src]

#lizard #animals #Sceloporus #biology #hidden delights #nature #wildlife #the colouration is a measure of fitness of the males #there is SO much research on this #also the colour is enhanced in individuals that have malaria #for some reason #oh yeah lizards get malaria #I guess that might also be news to a lot of people #not Plasodium but a different genus #and tbh it is utterly bonkers #like there is one species of lizard that is host for two malaria species #but for the one species to infect #the other one has to infect it first #which is just silly #there was a brief moment where I thought my entire career would be lizard malaria #but a shitty potential supervisor who didn't give me the time of day shot down the idea completely #so I did my Bachelor's thesis on ratite birds instead #and here we are