To find tasty larvae,lizards use their brains

Lizards arent the simpletons some might take them for. Biologists from Duke University report that lizards have some of the same creative problem-solving abilities that birds and mammals do. Their findings appear in the current issue of Biology Letters.

The researchers,Manuel Leal and Brian Powell,exposed tropical lizards in Puerto Rico known as Anolis evermanni to a blue disc. Beneath the disc was some tasty preya freshly killed worm larva. Four of the six lizards tested were able to get to the worm either by biting the disc or by sticking their snouts underneath it and prying it off. Most people believed their behaviour may be more robotic or not as flexible, said Leal,the studys lead author. But the lizards were creative,he said,using skills which have no real ecological relevance.

He and Powell further complicated the experiment by placing a worm under a blue disc with a yellow border,but none under the plain blue disc.The lizards initially looked under the blue disc,where they expected the worm to be.But eventually,two clever lizards began looking under the blue and yellow disc,and successfully uncovered worms. Leal said he hoped the study would lead to more investigations into the

cognitive abilities of reptiles. If we only study birds and mammals,were only going to learn from those groups, he said. This is one more distinct group we need to

learn about.Sindya N. Bhanoo