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Q2 - Arabian Lizard Diversity

Theoretical 2 Real exam question - full text reproduced under IBO's CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

The Arabian Peninsula is one of the world’s hotspots of lizard diversity. Lizards occupy a wide variety of habitats and are therefore very diverse in appearance.

Eight Arabian lizard species showing diverse morphological adaptations

Additional views of the eight lizard species

True or False?

Q2.1. Assuming the pictures were taken in daylight, lizards 3 and 6 are nocturnal lizards.
Q2.2. Lizard 1 could be adapted to live in limestone caves.
Q2.3. Lizards 7 and 8 are both ground-dwelling predators.
Q2.4. Compared to other lizards in the pictures, lizards 2 and 5 display a morphological characteristic typical of animals adapted to living in colder areas.
Q2.5. Lizards 3 and 8 are fully homeothermic.
Q2.6. Lizards 5 and 6 have the necessary adaptations for burrowing.

Question reproduced from IBO 2023, Theoretical Paper 2, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - attributed to the International Biology Olympiad. Open the full exam PDF