A recent paper from the lab of Dr Maria Thaker, with her student Amod Zambre, has received wide media coverage.

Superb fan throated lizards exhibit colourful and elaborate throat displays. How can we understand the function of such colourful and elaborate animal signals? With robots, of course! In a recently published paper in the journal Animal Behaviour, Mr Amod Zambre and Dr. Maria Thaker from the Centre for Ecological Sciences explore how lizards respond to complex multicomponent social signals. To disentangle the role of different signal components on receiver responses, Zambre and Thaker designed robots that looked and behaved like the superb fan throated lizard, Sarada superba. Receiver responses indicate that movement is a way to attract attention, but specific colours are meant as signals for specific recipients.

This work may help us understand the functional evolution of the colourful moving dewlap of this charismatic lizard.

Link to the paper: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347217300933

Here are some links to article in popular press:

Nature India: http://www.natureasia.com/en/nindia/article/10.1038/nindia.2017.60

Research Matters: https://researchmatters.in/article/which-colours-do-you-choose-study-why...

Lokmat (Marathi news): http://epaperlokmat.in/epapernew.php?articleid=LOK_MTHN_20170514_7_1