Annotation
Please note, the lectures are given in the Czech language. English version of the course can be requested in advance if there are at least 3 students.
External factors: adaptation to water shortage in frogs and toads; thermal biology of reptiles; population ecology: reproductive strategies in frogs and toads; population regulation in giant turtles; invasions; evolutionary ecology: life history strategies, clutch size, egg incubation; Dollo principle and evolution of viviparity; legless lizards and evolution of locomotion; coloration and predation pressure in snakes; behavioural ecology: mating and spacing systems, the evolution of territoriality in
lizards, male combat and its consequences in snakes and lizards; foraging and feeding strategies in snakes and turtles; antipredatory behaviour in newts; community
ecology: lizard communities in deserts; speciation and extinctions on islands:
Caribbean amphibians and reptiles; rapid evolution of lizards on the Canary Islands; ecomorphs of anoles and their evolution.
Literature
Kentwood D. Wells (2007) The Ecology and Behavior of Amphibians
Laurie J. Vitt, Eric R. Pianka (Eds) 1994: Lizard Ecology, Princeton University Press
Stephen M. Reilly, Lance B. McBrayer, Donald B. Miles (Eds) 2007: Lizard Ecology, Cambridge University Press
Losos J. 2011: Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree: Ecology and Adaptive Radiation of Anoles, 528 pp.
Henderson R. W. and Powell R. (Eds.)2007. Biology of the boas and pythons. Eagle Mountain, Utah, Eagle Mountain Publishing, LC.