Thursday, April 5, 2012

Lizard Project- Day 10. Lizard Lingo!

We are on the cutting edge of evolutionary biology, but also on the cutting edge of developing new vocabulary.  After spending days and days trying to catch lizards, we have developed some new vocab words.  Let me define a few of these words, and use them in a sentence so you can better understand them. 

“Squirrel” verb To run around to the backside of a tree to avoid danger coming from the front, as squirrels commonly do to avoid predators.
In common lizard speak:  “Hey Dan, did you get that big male?”  “Nah, he squirreled me, can you see him from the other side?”

“The Praying Mantis”  noun The lizard catching technique generally employed to counter squirreling.  When a lizard is unseen, but its location is well known, the lizard-catcher aligns his hands in a prayer position, and then rapidly wraps his fingers around the tree, hoping to capture the lizard on the other side.
In common lizard speak:  “Hey Tim, that lizard is directly on the other side of that branch, use the Praying Mantis!” (Video demonstration to come!)

“The Put-back” noun When one lizard catcher should capture a lizard, but fails at the last moment, but another lizard catcher comes in to capture that same lizard before it escapes.  This word was borrowed from basketball, when a player simultaneously rebounds and scores off a teammates missed shot.  To see a prime example of a putback, see the video:

In common lizard speak:  “I can’t believe that dang lizard got away from me when I was getting it out of the noose!”  “Yeah, Good thing Reedy was there with the Put-Back, Taj Gibson would be sooooo jealous!”

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