Microhabitat and adhesive toepads shape gecko limb morphology.

Different substrates pose varied biomechanical challenges that select specific morphologies, such as long limbs for faster running and short limbs for balanced posture while climbing narrow substrates. We tested how gecko locomotion is affected by the microhabitat they occupy and by a key adaptation-adhesive toepads-through analyzing how those are related to limb morphology. We collected microhabitat and toepads data for over 90% of limbed gecko species, and limb measurements for 403 species from 83 of the 121 limbed gecko genera, which we then used in phylogenetic comparative analyses.

Different solutions lead to similar life history traits across the great divides of the amniote tree of life.

Amniote vertebrates share a suite of extra-embryonic membranes that distinguish them from anamniotes. Other than that, however, their reproductive characteristics could not be more different. They differ in basic ectothermic vs endothermic physiology, in that two clades evolved powered flight, and one clade evolved a protective shell.