Aaron Griffing

@aaronhgriffing.bsky.social

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biologist | postdoc | evo devo | morphology | genomes | geckos | loud music & hot sauce enthusiast | he/him https://aarongriffing.weebly.com/ #GeckoEvoDevo

Text: Bauer Fest, Celebrating the career and legacy of Aaron M. Bauer. JMIH 2026, New Orleans, Louisiana Silhouettes of geckos are filled with a floral shirt design
a figure from Brennan et al. illustrating tail evolution across squamates
A subadult American alligator poking its head out through choppy water
The cover of the May 2026 issue of Evolution featuring an image of a croaking lizard (Aristelliger praesignis)
Holding a small white quail egg on the left and an enormous ostrich egg on the right
Presenting some of my work on reptile evo devo to the Hirasawa group
Cranial ossification in leopard geckos examined using Alizarin Red staining.
A glorious Aristelliger praesignis being active at night
Ancestral character estimations of diel activity in sphaerodactylid genera
Hematoxylin & eosin images as well as immunofluorescence of the Aristelliger retina showcasing increased photoreceptors in the fovea
Lateral views of the heads of five species of lizard. Diurnal lizards exhibit ocular elongation and retraction, while the nocturnal lizards do not.
Me 11 years ago collecting Aristelliger (with permits)
The sphaerodactylid portion of the ancestral character estimation from Gamble et al. 2015
Lateral view of a preserved croaking gecko (Aristelliger) embryo
A developmental series of anole lungs, progressing from early embryo (left) to late embryo (right)
Immunofluorescence labeling E-cadherin (green) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (magenta), and phosphorylated myosin light chain (white) in the developing lungs of veiled chameleon
EdU assays of chameleon lungs through development. EdU signal (white) is localized to the growing tips of the transitional chambers and diverticulae.
Simulation of a epithelium and smooth muscle mesh that either increases via luminal pressure or epithelial proliferation. The latter predicts a thinner epithelium and immunfluorescence of E-cadherin (green) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (magenta) recapitulates what the simulation predicted!
Immunofluorescence labeling E-cadherin (green) and EdU (white) in the developing lungs of chameleons, leopard geckos, and brown anoles.
Immunofluorescence image labeling E-cadherin (green) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (magenta) of their developing lungs of Italian wall lizard
Immunofluorescence labeling E-cadherin (green) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (magenta) of their developing lungs of brown anole (top) and leopard gecko (bottom)
A phylogeny of squamates demonstrating the diverse morphologies that are present in each clade with schematics of some of these distinct morphologies. The species we studied have either single-chambered lungs (brown anole & leopard gecko) or transitionally multi-chambered lungs with distal diverticulae (veiled chameleon)
A cartoon schematic illustrating stress ball morphogenesis in the brown anole lung. The lung starts off as a wishbone shape without smooth muscle. Smooth muscle eventually differentiates and creates a mesh around the epithelium. The epithelium eventually bulges out between openings in the mesh.
brightfield images of three lizard embryos of approximately the same developmental stage. Below each embryo image is an immunofluorescence image labeling E-cadherin (green) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (magenta) of their developing lungs
Immunofluorescence of mouse, anole, and chicken lungs showing epithelium in green and smooth muscle actin in magenta
The December 2025 cover of Journal of Anatomy, depicting a CT scan skeleton of Aristelliger georgeensis with hemipenes featuring mineralized hemibacula
Two quail embryos. The individual on the left has dark pigment in it's eye while the individual on the right has no visible pigment in the eye.
brightfield images of three lizard embryos of approximately the same developmental stage. Below each embryo image is an immunofluorescence image labeling E-cadherin (green) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (magenta) of their developing lungs
an adult miniaturized gecko, Sphaerodactylus macrolepis, sitting on top of my thumb
The Gamble Lab in front of the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame at Evolution 2022
Meme of a car labeled as "Mediterranean House Geckos" making a last minute decision to drive to Athens Georgia instead of Athens Greece
A portrait of Aristelliger praesignis
graphs illustrating log average hemibaculum element length as it relates to log snout-to-vent length. Slopes do not differ significantly from 1, suggesting isometry.
An ontogenetic series of cleared and stained Aristelliger praesignis hemibacula, showing that they do not develop until after sexual maturity
Figure 3 of the paper showing a Hall-Brundt Quadruple stain of Aristelliger hemibacula. Mineralized connective tissue is red, alcian positive tissue is blue, epidermis appears purple, and the non-mineralized connective tissue is bluish white.
Figure 2 from the paper, showing the two subgenera of Aristelliger (Subgenus Aristelliger and Subgenus Aristelligella). Subgenus Aristelliger exhibit two mineralized elements per hemipenis lobe while subgenus Aristelligella exhibit only one element per lobe. Members of the A. praesignis and A. lar clades exhibit distinct morphology of the second hemibacula element.
Figure 1 from the new paper showing everted hemipenes of Aristelliger, µCT rendering of hemibacula, and cleared and stained hemibacula.
Dorsal views of developing parafrontals in cleared and stained Aristelliger hechti
An illustration of Aristelliger cochranae hemipenes and hemibacula, from Kluge (1982)
A photograph of Aristelliger praesignis, a dark green gecko with orange and white speckles, sitting on a branch.
Joaquin Navajas Acedo in his award talk at ICDB 2025 telling us “do not give them an INCH” in regards to people spreading misinformation and dismantling science
Some of the developmental staging series Developmental Dynamics has published, including Lepidodactylus lugubris
graphical abstract for our paper showing µCT images, histology, and illustrations of croaking gecko hemipenes hemibaculahttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.70009
The title of my poster: "Multi-omics analysis reveals a novel origin of pulmonary smooth muscle in the lungs of birds" When and where to see it: 19 June 2025, 2:00PM to 3:00PM at Poster A73 images: 1) mouse, anole, and chicken in a phylogenetic context with embryonic lung immunofluorescence 2) µCT of a chicken embryo with lung in blue 3) insets of in situ hybridization of chicken lung, single-cell RNA-seq, and ATAC-seq pile ups
Lateral view of a lizard embryo, showcasing it's large eyes, developing brain and viscera, and limb buds.
Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at a TV screen from “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
A spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) — a dark grey salamander with yellow spots — peering out from underneath fallen leaves.
Part of an embryonic series of the mourning gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris). Earlier stage embryos are in the top left corner with later stages descending to the bottom right corner.
portrait of a golden gecko (Gekko badenii) with visible blood sinuses in its adhesive toe pads
The cover of Integrative & Comparative Biology, volume 64, number 5, 2024. The cover features a view from above of a viper gecko (Hemidactylus imbricatus), a brown gecko with large scales and tan speckles.
The album cover of Smashing Pumpkins’ “Siamese Dream”
A ventral view of a turnip tail gecko (Thecadactylus rapicauda) with white background. The gecko has a yellow belly, dark brown markings, and broad light-colored toe pads.
A phylogeny with gecko embryos at the tips, encompassing 11 different gecko species. Each embryo is approximately the same developmental stage and has an arrow pointing towards a near-hatchling representative of each species.
µCT reconstruction of a mourning gecko embryo with segmentation of the lungs