WHEN deciding whether to get into a fight, the size of an opponent is unimportant to a male Augrabies flat lizard (Platysaurus broadleyi). What they really care about is whose throat reflects the most ultraviolet light.
The lizards, native to South Africa, challenge each other by twisting their multicoloured bodies to expose dark blue throats.
Martin Whiting of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and his colleagues dimmed the reflectiveness of the throats of 54 males with UV-blocking sunscreen and noticed that challenges by treated lizards were twice as likely to escalate into violence as normal (…
