"The Pointy End"
Mo Healey, PhD Student

This is a red-headed painted dragon lizard, not too happy to be caught by me and looking for something to bite! Males of this species occur in three colour morphs, red, orange or yellow. We have discovered that the red morph is the most aggressive and beats the others in contests for food and females, despite them being exactly the same size and mass. Sub-dominant colour morphs submit without a fight when they come into contact with red males, which is evolutionarily stable as it reduces costly fighting and even death. It’s all about attitude in the lizard world…..