House of the Iguana

This is an iguana, regal species that they are. 

This a pangolin, which are the animals Dr. Zack is
working with. They look a lot like armadillos,
but their armor is a lot less tough. 

Hi everyone, it's been a long time but everything is finally off the ground. Yesterday was my first day in the lab and Dr. Fisher and I set everything up. I have approximately three months to work, so everything is on a schedule.
     For the first month, I'll be focusing mainly on iguanas, a major species of lizard for those of you who don't know. This week I'm "getting my feet wet" so to speak. I'm working with a couple of previously dissected green iguanas practicing dissection techniques - skinning, muscle separation, etc - and camera usage. You have to photograph everything, a concept I was previously unaware of, using lighting and "supermacro settings". Dr. Zack, a postdoc working with Dr. Fisher, brought me up to speed. Or at least tried to, it will definitely be trial by fire ;). Next week I'll start my first iguana, dissecting it's left and right forelimbs and hindlimbs. The forelimb is the area from the shoulder extending to the fingertips/manus and the hindlimb is the area from the pelvis to the toes/pes. The reason both left and right limbs must be dissected is due to bilateral asymmetry, which means that the left and right sides are not identical and an anatomical structure may be easily seen on one but not on the other. The full iguana dissection will hopefully take about four weeks, and since I will be dissecting two specimens, this brings us to week 5. 
     For the second month I will be dissecting a comparison species, which has yet to be chosen. It may be a green anole, or a side - blotched lizard, or maybe even a chameleon. Again, the goal is to get two full lizards dissected, to create a large data sample. This data will then be analyzed during the third month, along with continuing dissections. I will also start putting together my presentation. 
     So that's the plan. I'm working with some pretty awesome people. There's Dr. Fisher herself, who is an undergrad from Stanford and a PhD from Yale. Dr. Zack is her postdoc who's doing some pretty cool stuff with pangolins. Alex and Margaret are undergrads at Barrett, the Honors College, working on their honors theses in the lab. Haha, I'm really excited about the whole thing, and I will put up some pictures of my new lizard friends soon. 

AA