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Effects of basking opportunity on birthing asynchrony in a viviparous lizard

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posted on 2023-05-16, 23:51 authored by Geoffrey WhileGeoffrey While, Erik WapstraErik Wapstra
The optimal degree of hatching asynchrony may depend on environmental conditions, with synchrony favoured in some environments and asynchrony in others. Therefore, in such a context there should be strong selection on the ability of females to adjust their degree of asynchrony facultatively to match local conditions. While this scenario has traditionally only been of interest to avian biologists, hatching asynchrony, and processes analogous to hatching asynchrony (i.e. birthing asynchrony), have now been identified in a number of nonavian taxa. For example, in an Australian lizard genus, Egernia, birth of offspring within a litter occurs asynchronously, with females having considerable control over the degree of asynchrony. As with birds, if the advantages of birthing asynchrony depend on the environment, females should facultatively adjust the degree of birthing asynchrony based on the prevailing conditions. We examined the birthing asynchrony patterns of female White's skink, Egernia whitii, placed under different thermal environments (basking conditions) during gestation. We found that the basking conditions females experienced during gestation influenced offspring phenotype, both directly, by affecting offspring size, and indirectly, by affecting birthing asynchrony patterns. Specifically, we showed that females held under reduced basking conditions increased the spread over which they gave birth compared to females held under extended basking conditions. As birth spread can influence both offspring growth and survival, our results suggest strong selection on female behaviour (e.g. basking and birthing) in order to maximize offspring and/or parental fitness. © 2009 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.

History

Publication title

Animal Behaviour

Volume

77

Issue

6

Pagination

1465-1470

ISSN

0003-3472

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

Elsevier Ltd

Place of publication

United Kingdom

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences

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