Are island sleepy lizards inbred?

Project description

Background: Sleepy lizards have been the subject of study continuously since 1982 at Bundey Bore in South Australia’s Mid-North. There is likely a large population at the site as over 15,000 lizards have been captured. There are other populations of sleepy lizards which are likely smaller but little work has occurred on these. This project will involve sampling sleepy lizards from several populations (Bundey Bore long term study plus Hallett Cove and Granite Island) to assess if the Hallett Cove and Granite Island populations are inbred. Morphological variation can also be examined including potentially asymmetry of the head scalation. There is the possibility of using historical samples at the SA Museum. Students role: The honours student will collect samples from sleepy lizards from Granite Island and Hallett Cove and send samples off for SNP genotyping. The student will analyse the resulting data and compare inbreeding levels potentially using runs of homozygosity. Type of work: The project is primarily lab and computer based, however there will be opportunities to go to the field site to participate in the long term research. Can be or part time starting in S1 or S2 If full time then will need to start in S2. What supervisors are involved: Professor Mike Gardner (FU); Dr Gerrut Norval (FU).

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