The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is encouraging the public to track sightings of common wall lizards that have been spotted in southeastern Indiana.
February 16, 2021 Unable to conduct summer research in France, Princeton Vaughn ’22 instead visited Cincinnati, Ohio, to explore how the common wall lizard has adapted since being introduced there from Italy in the 1950s.
(Photo courtesy of Princeton Vaughn)
Agile Adaptation By Cole Hatcher
Their plan was to travel to southern France to study how a local lizard is responding to climate change.
Though the pandemic prevented Ohio Wesleyan University’s
Sierra Spears ’22,
Princeton Vaughn ’22, and assistant professor of zoology
Eric Gangloff from visiting the Pyrenees mountains this summer, the quick-thinking trio followed the lizard’s example – and adapted.
In the months since their trip was canceled, the OWU scientists have successfully completed multiple related research projects that could be conducted without international travel, presented their findings at the 2021 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting, and begun drafting two papers