title: Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity (Organisms and Environments)
author: Harry W. Greene
description: In this coffee table nature book, two renowned lizard ecologists explain why these remarkable reptiles not only have as much a place on the planet as humans, but are also helpful in understanding evolutionary biology. Pianka and Vitt describe lizards' incredible diversity and highlight some of the creatures' weirder tools for survival, including blood-squirting eyes, breakaway tails and kaleidoscope camouflage. With the hundreds of extraordinary color photographs picturing lizards in their own habitats, general readers might be tempted to page past text that includes a behavioral overview, a phylogenetic guide and an evolutionary analysis of lizards' past and future. However, most of the research is accessible to non-scientists, thanks to clear writing and layman's anecdotes illustrating nearly every theory. Sidebars contain delightful personal stories about the authors' adventures collecting lizards in remote places, and the book is full of gee-whiz facts: some lizards are tiny enough to be prey for spiders, while others are big enough to eat deer. The prose is concise and often surprising: "Few, if any, other vertebrates display autoamputation and self-cannibalism," the authors report mildly about the North American and Australian skinks who will shed their tail to divert a predator, only to return later and swallow the remains of their tail themselves. Pianka and Vitt offer both a comprehensive evolutionary perspective and a youthful enthusiasm for their subject, making this an essential reference for scientists and armchair zoologists. 218 color illustrations, 31 line drawings, 8 tables. <br />Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  Max Glebow Brigadier GeneralBook 4
  
  
  Counter-attack
  
  
  Prologue
  
  
  “I’d never thought they’d be our distant relatives, it wouldn't even occur to
  me,” Inga smiled, “but if you look at these lizards carefully, the analogy
  with our reptiles is obvious. There is a bunch of collages on the web where
  our new allies are almost hugged by the Komodo dragons. That's really
  impressive.”
  
  
  “Well, we’re not that dissimilar to them actually,” I also smiled, “We and the
  lizards share ancestors, and the oldest part of our brain came from reptiles
  in a not-too-much-modified form, so we have a chance to come to an agreement
  with them. The thing I love most about this story is that we have little to
  share with them. Warm oxygen planets are pleasant for them, of course, but
  they’d be perfectly comfortable living on Mars before it was terraformed.”
  
  
  “Yes, their ability to adapt to external conditions commands respect, and we
  could use it, too…”
  
  
  “It’s all about the way their civiliz