OF TONGUES AND NOSES - CHEMORECEPTION IN LIZARDS AND SNAKES

Lizards and snakes inhabit a world so richly textured in chemical info rmation that, as primates, we can only imagine it. Subtle nuances of c hemical shading underlie nearly every fundamental activity of their li ves, from finding food to finding mates. Recent work examines the natu re of these chemical messages, mechanisms for their perception, the in terplay of the chemical senses in the sociobiology of the group, and p atterns of chemosensory evolution. Emerging is a new sense of lizard a nd snake behavioral complexity that belies the common notion of these animals as simple automata and points to a surprising capacity for pla sticity and learning.