Julia Riley (Postdoc): My research focuses on studying the social behaviour of reptiles; this includes describing species’ social structure and mating systems for the first time, examining the consequences of a social life for reptiles, and testing if reptiles can socially-learn from one another. My current projects focus on understanding sociality in the Australian Tree Skink (Egernia striolata), African Girdled Lizards, and North American Painted Turtles. Collaborators and myself are seeking to answer questions like: How to reptiles benefit from living in groups or with relatives? What is the nature of reptilian social behaviour? Do reptile social systems hold clues about the evolutionary origins of social behaviour?
|