Locomotor biomechanics faces a core trade-off between laboratory-based and field-based
studies. Laboratory conditions offer control over confounding factors, repeatability, and …

Organismal solutions to natural challenges can spark creative engineering applications.
However, most engineers are not experts in organismal biology, creating a potential barrier …

Nicaragua is a biodiverse country, but documented herpetological specimens are
underrepresented compared to neighboring countries. In 2018 we conducted a collaborative …

Ultraviolet (UV) colour patterns invisible to humans are widespread in nature. However,
research bias favouring species with conspicuous colours under sexual selection can limit …

Batesian mimics decrease their chance of predation by their resemblance to different,
dangerous or unpalatable species but this relationship is often inferred without quantitative …

Warning signals in chemically defended organisms are critical components of predator–prey
interactions, often requiring multiple coordinated display components for effective …

Evidence suggests that snakes can hear, but how snakes naturally respond to sound is still
unclear. We conducted 304 controlled experiment trials on 19 snakes across five genera in …

Adaptations for predator defense are often complex traits with integrated display
components spanning multiple signaling modalities. For antipredator coloration like deimatic …

Venomous coral snakes and non-venomous coral snake lookalikes are often regarded as a
classic example of Batesian mimicry, whereby a harmless or palatable organism imitates a …

Thanatosis (pretending to be dead), sometimes called letisimulation, is widely used as an
anti-predator strategy by snakes. Herein we report six cases of death-feigning in six species …