I’m currently a visiting research fellow in Miguel Carretero’s lab (FBIO) at the Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO-InBIO), Universidade do Porto, in Portugal. I was lucky enough to receive an Endeavour Postdoctoral Fellowship award, allowing me to visit for 6 months to study the colour polymorphic lacertid lizard Podarcis muralis. I’ll be looking at the complexity of colour polymorphism in relation to habitat and geography, across several populations in the western Pyranees this summer.
Podarcis muralis males of various morphs
Several papers are underway from the projects I undertook as a Research Fellow in Daiqin Li’s Lab at the National University of Singapore, working on personality, behaviour and the evolution of visual signals in jumping spiders. I loved Singapore and I’m hatching a plan to visit again very soon! Stay tuned for more on this.
Cosmophasis umbratica male (left) and female (right), taken from Lim & Li, 2004.
In 2016 I completed my PhD in the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre at UNSW. My research focused on gliding lizards (Genus: Draco) which are found throughout southeast Asia. Draco have extendible ‘wings’ called patagia, which are supported by elongated ribs and can extend and retract for gliding between trees. They also have colourful extendible dewlaps – or throat-fans – which they use in display for communicating with conspecifics. Among other questions, I tested how sensory drive may lead to speciation when populations diverge in visual habitats. Draco spp., are an ideal group to test this as they have strikingly different body colouration (specifically regions used in signalling) as well as different behaviours for communication and are found in diverse habitats within a small geographic range. I was supervised by Terry Ord, and Devi Stuart-Fox who was based in Melbourne, with me, at the University of Melbourne.
Contact Details:
Danielle Klomp, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Research Centre for Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, InBio,
Universidade do Porto, Portugal, 4485-661
Office: +351 968 067 651
Email: danielle.a.klomp@gmail.com
twitter: @danielleklomp
