Lab - Chemical Energy and Lizard Push-ups

Chemical energy and lizard push-ups Introduction Lizards are deemed to be species that are not necessarily brought into the spotlight amidst all other species. We see breeding being a big component for all species, but for lizards it is a different story. Male lizards tend to hold an important part in the process of reproduction as they start to entice the females with their push-ups. This is typical for male lizards who are trying to represent masculinity while also showing other males in their community that they can defend their region. Females also like this because they can assess the male and see if the specific male lizard is able to protect around their surroundings with their overall physical body. Scientists are interested in the males’ pushups because it was a very new way of communicating for animal species in general. Along with that, its shocked scientists on how common it was for lizards to partake in this activity, and how much energy it used in overall. Materials and Methods For the lab activity, there were not a lot of materials used, apart from the YouTube video “Lizard pushups!”. This allowed me to take a note of how many push ups a lizard approximately does during the time of its breeding season. I was able to use my calculator to figure out how many pushups the lizard would do in a month. For the method itself, as the video was approximately thirteen seconds, I used it to count how many pushups. Because there is the notion that lizards would be doing push-ups for a duration of 30 minutes a day, going at the same pace as in the video. With the overall calorie information, a cricket approximately weighs 0.5 grams, with there being 121 dietary calories in 100 grams of calories. I was able to then multiply it by 30 minutes, and eventually 30 days. I was able to divide the total by 10 to get the proper number of calories. I was eventually able to find the actual weight and how many crickets the lizard must consume at the end. Results With the video I concluded that the cricket is doing 9 pushups in a span of 13 seconds. - 9/13 pushups in 13 seconds. 13 seconds times 4.6154 o Approximately 42 pushups in a span of 60 seconds - And then I multiplied 42 x 30 minutes, which gave me 1,260 pushups per day, and multiplied that once more by 30 days, to get a total of 37,800. For the calories, - I multiplied 37,800 pushups by 0.1 calories to receive a total of 3,780. - With there being 121 dietary calories per 100 grams of crickets, 1 cricket is approximately 0.5 grams. - I came to the total of 0.605 calories per cricket consumed - Then, it helped me find the number of crickets needing to be consumed, which would be 3,780 calories/0.605 calories of each cricket. Which came out to total of approximately 6,248 crickets every 30 days. Seconds from video Numbe r of pushups 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 Discussion In conclusion, lizards are a peculiar type of species that attract their mates in a different way than any other specific specie. With the push-ups shown by the lizards, they can entice females, but also face off different sized creatures in a territorial war. I think there is a use for this push up activity but to a certain extent. Lizards need to control their energy for other productive activities instead of dedicating their time to reproduction. It could help in the defense, but it would not be needed every time.