Sexual selection in lizards

For my undergraduate research at the University of Virginia, I completed my distinguished majors thesis in the Cox lab. I used ArcGIS to map out our research island and calculate fine scale variation in the density of lizards on the island. I then looked at how local density and sex ratio varied with different sperm traits, with the idea that males in more competitive environments (higher density and male-biased sex ratio) may invest more into traits that aid in sperm competition (Kustra et al. 2019 Oecologia).

I was a co-author on a paper led by Ariel Kahrl that looked at how selection acts on ejaculate traits in brown anole lizards. We found evidence for negative directional and stabilizing selection on sperm count but no significant selection on sperm morphology.