Welcome to the Glor Lab's home on the web. We are a group of evolutionary biologists in the University of Rochester's Department of Biology interested in the evolution of biological diversity. Please follow the links below if you'd like more detailed information about who we are and what we do.
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Thursday, July 29, 2010
 Anthony "Monstruo" Geneva, Ali "She Whose Name Cannot be Said" Ossip-Klein, Miguel "Sorpresa" Landestoy, Audrey Kelly (a.k.a. Sara Connor), Ryane "Fósforo en Fuego" Logsdon, Julienne "La Peligra" Ng, Rich "El Tigre" Glor Our annual summer trip to the Dominican Republic is now in the books. We had our biggest group ever with one PI (Glor), two graduate students (Ng and Geneva), three undergraduates (Ossip-Klein, Logsdon, Kelly), and one Dominican naturalist (Miguel Landestoy). We spent much of our time on the famous Recodo Rd. and stopped there our last day for the group photo attached to this post. We had a very successful outing, in spite of losing several days to heavy rains. We got tons of behavioral data on the display patterns of distichoid anoles, as well as plenty of light data on where these animals tend to display.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
 Seth prepares the reaction cocktail for what he thinks is his final PCR in the Glor Lab. I’m happy to report that at this very minute repeat Undergraduate of the Month-failure Seth Rudman is preparing what he proclaimed as his “final PCR experiment in the Glor Lab.”
What Seth doesn’t know is that I replaced his DNA aliquots with tap water. Silly Seth, you can’t amplify Anolis sagrei-group DNA from tap water.
Seth and I will celebrate his latest in a string of failures this evening at The Colony Bar and Grille over a glass of “champagne.”
Shenanigans aside, Seth will be missed. The data set he’s working on (34 individuals, ca. 11 nominal species, 27 nuclear loci) is destined to be a classic in species-tree methods.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
This week in lab meeting, we’re prepping for the upcoming trip by reading some field studies of behavior. The goal is to help Ryane and Audrey figure out a strategy for their field observations of A. distichus display behavior. The studies given do not focus on quantifying display patterns like Ryane and Audrey hope to do, but they are close enough to offer some important guidance. The first is a paper called “Adaptation and plasticity of animal communication in fluctuating environments” which looks at already quantified display patterns and tries to see if there is a correlation between the display environment and the display. The second is a paper titled “Behavioral convergence and adaptive radiation: effects of habitat use on territorial behavior in Anolis lizards.” Hopefully these two papers will give us an idea of what sort of habitat characteristics we should note and how to go about finding and filming individuals. And hopefully it will also get us pumped for next week!
Let’s meet on Thursday at noon this week. Here is Audrey’s note about this week’s readings: “This week in lab meeting, we’re prepping for the upcoming trip by reading some field studies of behavior. The goal is to help Ryane and Audrey figure out a strategy for their field observations of A. distichus display behavior. The studies given do not focus on quantifying display patterns like Ryane and Audrey hope to do, but they are close enough to offer some important guidance. The first is a paper called “Adaptation and plasticity of animal communication in fluctuating environments” which looks at already quantified display patterns and tries to see if there is a correlation between the display environment and the display. The second is a paper titled “Behavioral convergence and adaptive radiation: effects of habitat use on territorial behavior in Anolis lizards.” Hopefully these two papers will give us an idea of what sort of habitat characteristics we should note and how to go about finding and filming individuals. And hopefully it will also get us pumped for next week!”
Monday, July 5, 2010
 As we prepare for our trip to the DR I’ve got a quick review on a good headlamp. I recently got the Princeton Tec Apex Pro Headlamp and I am very very pleased. It has a variety of lighting levels from slight illumination to absolutely blazing. Julie and I hiked a half-mile long lava tube (zero ambient light) with only this light and it provided more than enough illumination for both of us. It takes 2 CR123A size batteries which are less common but pump twice the voltage as regular AA in a smaller package. There is an alternative version here which takes 4 AA batteries but you need to weigh your options between strapping 4 of those clunkers on your head vs. having to use a battery type that is not as widely available. I’m buying a big pack of CR123As and can bring more along if people want them.
Along those same lines I’m thinking of getting a crazy new flashlight, but finances may not allow that.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
I’m proud to report that Dan’s photo of Sphaerodactylus ariasae from Isla Beata won the SSE photo contest in Portland. The winner was decided by audience applause and Dan’s photo blew the competitors out of the water. Several tables were screaming their lungs out, leading the judge to declare something like “Well, I think that’s a clear winner.” For those of you not already familiar with S. ariasae, it may be the world’s smallest amniote, with typical snout-to-vent lengths of only around 16 mm. We spent a day hunting for these little buggers in the Dominican Republic last summer. To get them, we ended up taking a boat down the western coast of the Barahona Peninsula, stopping once on the mainland without success before finally bagging a few on Isla Beata. We paid a stiff price for the pleasure of observing these little beasts; Miguel was stung repeatedly by bees and I ended up with a full body rash that lasted more than two weeks after spending the better part of the afternoon sifting through leaf litter from a poisonwood tree.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
I’m just back from a successful trip to Portland for this year’s evolution meetings. Everybody’s talks went well. We’ll talk more about the new science we saw at our next lab meeting. The immediate reason for writing now is so that we can put in an order that takes advantage of all the discounts offered by publishers at the meetings. I dropped off order sheets in the lab this afternoon from Princeton, Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, Chicago, California, Roberts & Company and Sinauer. Initial the books you want and we’ll put in a group order on Monday.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
 We’re going to have a special lab meeting on Monday at 1PM featuring practice talks for the Evolution meetings. Please come prepared to provide feedback on the following presentations:
Diverse dewlaps: a reproductively isolating signal? – Ng
Patterns of head shape evolution in Greater Antillean Sphaerodactylusgeckos – Scantlebury
A new framework for testing the contribution of environmental variation to the origin and maintenance of biogeographic boundaries – Glor
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
 Gonatodes ocellatus Here’s a quick teaser from my trip…
Monday, June 14, 2010
Baring any incidents/Bothrops/Lachesis/Eunectes, I should make a triumphant return from 2 weeks of exploits (and sketchy boat rides) across the West Indies late Wednesday night. At this point, the following islands have been owned: Trinidad, Tobago, Little Tobago, Union, Mayreau, Carriacou, and Grenada. Thursday afternoon, I will need some help preparing specimens of assorted Anolis species, Polychrus marmoratus (don’t miss your chance to see this interesting beast), and a handful of spectacular sphaerodactylid species. Unless there’s something else on the agenda, perhaps lab meeting is an opportune time?
Update from Glor: I’m up for using lab meeting to help prep specimens and definitely looking forward to seeing this Polychrus! However, Seth also has some readings from his new lab for us to discuss. These readings are on the gene that controls armor in sticklebacks (sorry there is something screwed up on the server that prevents me from making these actual links – just cut and paste the two URLs that follow into your browser to get the papers: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1159978 & http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00762.x).
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
The paper for this week is from the Martins Lab. Since I will be going into this lab next year, I thought it would be fun to read a recent paper from that lab. This is a cool behavioral study that may have interesting implications for Audrey’s behavioral work. We will be ordering food from Tandoor tomorrow, so get excited!
 Ali is running lab meeting this week. Here’s her message about this week’s meeting:
“The papers for this week are from the Martins Lab at Indiana University. Since I will be going into this lab next year, I thought it would be fun to read recent papers from that lab. These are cool behavioral studies that may have interesting implications for Audrey’s behavioral work. We will be ordering food from Tandoor tomorrow, so get excited!”
Ruiz, M., Z. M. Beals, and E. P. Martins. 2010. MALE SAGEBRUSH LIZARDS (SCELOPORUS GRACIOSUS) INCREASE EXPLORATORY BEHAVIOR TOWARD FEMALES WITH MORE COURTSHIP EXPERIENCE. Herpetologica 66:142-147. [doi link]
Ruiz, M., S. S. French, G. E. Demas, E. P. Martins. 2010. Food supplementation and testosterone interact to influence reproductive behavior and immune function in Sceloporus graciosus. Hormones and Behavior 57:134-139. [doi link]
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