The tongue is often considered a key innovation in the evolution of a terrestrial lifestyle as it allows animals to transport food items through the oral cavity in air, a medium with low density and viscosity. The tongue has been secondarily coopted for a wide diversity of functions, including prey capture, drinking, breathing, and defensive behaviors. Within basal lizard groups, the tongue is used primarily for the purpose of prey capture and transport. In more derived groups, however, the tongue appears specialized for chemoreceptive purposes. Here we examine the tongue structure and morphology in lacertid lizards, a group of lizards where the tongue is critical to both food transport and chemoreception. Because of the different mechanical demands imposed by these different functions, regional morphological specializations of the tongue are expected. All species of lacertid lizards examined here have relatively light tongue muscles, but a well developed hyobranchial musculature that may assist during food transport. The intrinsic musculature, including verticalis, transversalis, and longitudinalis groups, is well developed and may cause the tongue elongation and retraction observed during chemoreception and drinking. The papillary morphology is complex and shows clear differences between the tongue tips and anterior fore-tongue, and the more posterior parts of the tongue. Our data show a subdivision between the fore-and hind-tongue in both papillary structure and muscular anatomy likely allowing these animals to use their tongues effectively during both chemoreception and prey transport. Moreover, our data suggest the importance of hyobranchium movements during prey transport in lacertid lizards.

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The habitat of the Great Bustard (Otis tarda, Linnaeus, 1758) in our country, due to the change of agricultural land to the natural and secondary steppe, nowadays constitutes mostly farmland. In addition to the pest control in the field of agriculture and indirectly to get more products from agricultural areas, wide variety of pesticides (Herbicides, Rodenticides, Insecticides, etc.) are used. In this study, it has been aimed to identify what agricultural pesticides are used in the living areas of the species and based on these findings the possible effects on this species are compared with the previous literature. This study was carried out in Eskişehir Aliken Important Nature Area and Kütahya Altıntaş Wildlife Development Area between March 2013 and May 2017. During the field survey in the habitat of great bustard, it was determined that 13 different active ingredients of herbicide, 3 different active ingredients of insecticide, and 2 different active ingredients of fungicide were used and these pesticides' photographs were taken and coordinates were noted. Finally, the written articles on the determined pesticide active ingredients were scanned and potential impacts on these endangered species are discussed

Great Bustard is one of the heaviest birds in the Western Palearctic, so aerodynamic effects are critically important for their distribution and conversation. To understand why do they need to find open areas during the resting and feeding time, aerodynamic features were discussed in this study. Mass of the Great Bustard and having proportionally small wings cause weak flight performance. In this work, those disadvantages were identified by aerodynamic approach and observation. Great Bustard tries to use the relative wind during the take-off to close these disadvantages. Also, turning performance which is affected by the same specifications with take-off performance can determine their behavior. As a result, aerodynamic factors may also play important role in their current status.