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Evolution and Ecological Adaptations of Microornamentation in Australian Geckos (Gekkota, Squamata)

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Evolution and Ecological Adaptations of Microornamentation in Australian Geckos (Gekkota, Squamata) ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following work: Riedel, Nils Jendrian (2020) Evolution and ecological adaptations of microornamentation in Australian geckos (Gekkota, Squamata). PhD Thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: https://doi.org/10.25903/3w26%2Dvv52 © 2020 Nils Jendrian Riedel. The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owners of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please email [email protected] Evolution and ecological adaptations of microornamentation in Australian geckos (Gekkota, Squamata) Thesis submitted by Nils Jendrian Riedel For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Science and Engineering at James Cook University April 2020 Title page photographs First row: Left: Spatula at the tips of the setae from the Paluma-W lineage of Heteronotia binoei (credit: Jendrian Riedel) Middle: Saltuarius cornutus (credit: Rishab Pillai) Right: pits and struts between the setae stalks from the Paluma-W lineage of Heteronotia binoei (credit: Jendrian Riedel) Second row: Left: Oedura castelnaui (credit: Rishab Pillai) Middle: setae covered terminal subdigital scales of the Paluma-W lineage of Heteronotia binoei (credit: Jendrian Riedel) Right: Oedura coggeri (credit: Stephen Zozaya) Third row: Left: Spinules on a dorsal midbody scale of Lucasium immaculatum (credit: Jendrian Riedel) Middle: Phyllurus amnicola (credit: Rishab Pillai) Right: Cutaneous sensillum from Oedura coggeri (credit: Jendrian Riedel) Fourth row: Left: Lucasium immaculatum (credit: Stephen Zozaya) Middle: Spinules on a lateral mid-distal subdigital scale from the Blencoe lineage of Heteronotia binoei (credit: Kevin Blake) Right: Strophurus krisalys (credit: Stephen Zozaya) Statement of Contributions and Ethics Declaration AUTHORS CONTRIBUTIONS A PhD thesis is never a solo project, and I was blessed with the opportunity to collaborate fruitfully with other researchers, both inside and outside my department. Lin Schwarzkopf, my primary supervisor, provided invaluable advice throughout my project and therefore is a co-author on all my data chapters and the appendix chapters in my thesis. We constantly discussed all steps of my research from experimental design and statistical analysis to interpretation of results, and she assisted me with editing of the manuscripts resulting in this thesis. When I started working on my thesis, I was in the lucky situation to inherit a large data set from Matt Vucko, which he used for his master’s thesis in 2008, but never published. So, I could immediately start to analyse his dataset, a process, which resulted in the chapters 2 and 3 of my thesis. Therefore, Matt Vucko is a co-author on Chapter 2 and 3, in which he collected the data, gave advice on study design, and edited the manuscript. Simone Blomberg also is a co-author on these two chapters, as she helped me with statistical analysis and troubleshooting in R for these two projects. Simon Robson is a co-author on Chapter 2, where he edited the manuscript and helped with the original data-collection by Matt Vucko. Stephen Zozaya and Conrad Hoskin are both co-authors on Chapter 4, were I designed the study together with Stephen and Lin. Stephen also provided specimen for the project and we both collected specimen and data in the field. He conducted the phylogenetic part of the analysis (DNA extraction and phylogenetic tree reconstruction), took the macroscopic images of the digits of the specimen and measured toepad width, while I conducted the scanning electron microscopy work and analysed all the morphological data. Conrad Hoskin provided helpful advice on study design. I lead the writing of the manuscript while Stephen, Conrad and Lin edited the various drafts. Eric Nordberg is a co-author on Chapter 5, where we designed the study and analysed the data together. Of the field observations used for this study, Eric collected the data from Wambiana Research Station, while I collected the data from all other sampled locations. FUNDING I received an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship from the Australian government. My research was supported by funding I obtained through the College of Science and Engineering at James Cook University. My field work was partially funded by two research funds from the Skyrail Rainforest Foundation. ETHICS APPROVAL AND PERMITS All data was collected within the guidelines for ethical treatment of animals and approved by James Cook University (animal ethics permit No. 2409) and the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (research permit No. WA0005590) and the Department of National Parks, Sports, and Racing (research permit No. WTIK18258517). I Preface The following publication have resulted from this thesis. Thesis Chapters Chapter 2 – published: Riedel, J., Vucko, M. J., Blomberg, S. P., Robson, S. K. A., & Schwarzkopf, L. (2019). Ecological associations among epidermal microstructure and scale characteristics of Australian geckos (Squamata: Carphodactylidae and Diplodactylidae). Journal of Anatomy, 234, 853–874. Chapter 3 – published: Riedel, J., Vucko, M. J., Blomberg, S. P. & Schwarzkopf, L. (2020). Skin hydrophobicity as an adaptation for self-cleaning in geckos. Ecology and Evolution, 00, 1-12. Chapter 4 – under review: Riedel, J., Zozaya, S. M., Hoskin, C. J., & Schwarzkopf, L. (under Review). Parallel evolution of toepads in rock dwelling lineages of a terrestrial gecko (Heteronotia binoei, Gekkota: Gekkonidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Chapter 5 – published: Riedel, J., Nordberg, E. J., & Schwarzkopf, L. (2020). Ecological niche and microhabitat use of Australian geckos. Israel Journal of Ecology & Evolution, 1, 1–14. Apendix Chapters Appendix I – published: Fushida, A., Riedel, J., Nordberg, E. J., Pillai, R., & Schwarzkopf, L. (2020). Can Geckos Increase Shedding Rate to Remove Fouling? Herpetologica, 76, 22–26. Appendix II – published: Pillai, R., Nordberg, E. J., Riedel, J., & Schwarzkopf, L. (2020). Nonlinear variation in clinging performance with surface roughness in geckos. Ecology and Evolution, 10, 2597–2607. II Acknowledgments Moving to Australia from Germany to work on geckos for a PhD is like a dream for every reptile enthusiast. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity and to all the people who supported me traveling this path. It was also a big step to leave behind my family and many good friends to move to the other side of the world, but I did not need to take this step alone. My wife Linda Stanke joined me on this great adventure, pursuing her own career in Townsville. Linda has supported me in many ways throughout this process and encouraged me to follow this path. So, my deepest thanks go to you, Linda! Thank you for joining and supporting me these past 3.5 years! I am extremely grateful to my primary supervisor Lin Schwarzkopf, who made it possible for me to join her lab in the first place. I could not have asked for of better supervisor and mentor for my project and my degree. Lin created an extremely positive, supportive and welcoming atmosphere in her lab full of scientists from a diversity of backgrounds and many different research areas. Lin constantly encouraged me to improve my skills and abilities as a researcher, from designing and planning my research, to analysing data, to writing and presenting results in a precise, correct way, but also in a style that is interesting to read. She always had time to discuss projects, problems, or just random interesting topics, and to read and correct manuscripts over and over again. She was also really supportive in connecting me with other researchers in Australia. I am also thankful to my co-supervisors for support and helpful advice. Will Edwards, Deb Bower and Scott Keough where always there for me when I needed them. Will helped me to improve some of my manuscripts and grant proposals. Deb helped me planning the ecological part of my thesis, and also contributed greatly to the positive and welcoming atmosphere in My lab. Scott gave valuable advice on the morphological parts of my project, including data that did not make it into the thesis in the end… but will hopefully be published soon! Research nowadays is highly collaborative, and I had the privilege to collaborate with quite a few great researchers for the different chapters of my thesis. Matt Vucko was so kind to share unpublished data from his master’s thesis and gave me valuable support in analysing these datasets and writing the respective parts of my thesis. I’m also indebted to Simone Blomberg and her seemingly unlimited knowledge and expertise on statistics - I learned a lot about statistical analysis, while working with her. Simon Robson gave me valuable comments for one of the manuscripts for my thesis. Both Stephen Zozaya and Conrad Hoskin not only helped me with planning, conducting and writing one of my thesis chapters, but also provided helpful advice on where to go for my field trips to target the gecko species I was looking for. I am also very grateful to Eric Nordberg, who was the ‘senior’ PhD student in My lab, when I started. He not only contributed to one of my chapters and shared his data, but also generally supported me at different stages during my candidature form planning fieldwork to support and advice with R scripts. Additionally, I would like to thank Don McKnight and Michalis Mihalitis, who also helped me with discussing statistical analysis and writing or sharing R scripts at one point or another during my work. I am particularly thankful to Rishab Pillai, who started as a master’s III student in My lab, shortly after I started my project, and which I had the honour to co-supervise. He continued to assist me during my candidature by joining most of my field trips and supporting me with lab work or gecko husbandry.
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