Lizards and Formentera

My 2011 field season, perhaps my last as a graduate student, ended in late June. I study color evolution in an endemic lizard species found on islands in the Pityuses Archipelago in the Spanish Mediterranean. The archipelago consist of Ibiza, Formentera and about 40 small islets. Over the last three years, I spent amost a year living on Formentera conducting my PhD research and enjoying island life. I was in these particular islands because they are home to the Ibiza wall lizard, Podarcis pityusensis, a lizard species that exhibits striking color diversity over a very small range. Indeed, this species exhibits some of the highest color diversity seen in the reptilian world. In this gallery I share some images from these islands that I came to love, and the lizard research that brought me there.

Created By Nate Dappen