Evol Ecol Res 6: 739-747 (2004) Full PDF if your library subscribes.
Developmental environment has long-lasting effects on behavioural performance in two turtles with environmental sex determination
Steven Freedberg,* Amanda L. Stumpf, Michael A. Ewert and Craig E. Nelson
Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405-3700, USA
Address all correspondence to Steven Freedberg, Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA.
e-mail: sf4s@virginia.eduABSTRACT
Charnov and Bull (1977) originally predicted that environmental sex determination (ESD) can evolve when the developmental environment differentially affects male and female fitness. While developmental temperature is known to affect hatchling performance in reptiles with ESD, this reaction norm can provide the conditions to favour ESD only if the effects are long-lasting. We incubated eggs of Graptemys ouachitensis, an emydid turtle with ESD, at temperatures previously found to affect hatchling righting response. We tested righting response in both hatchlings and turtles raised in the laboratory for 1 year, and also examined the effects of testing temperature and social interactions on righting response. Turtles incubated at 30°C righted more quickly than turtles incubated at 25°C both as hatchlings and yearlings, and this effect was robust to testing temperature or rearing conditions. We found a similar reaction norm of temperature on righting response in Trachemys scripta elegans, another emydid turtle with ESD. These results demonstrate that incubation temperature can have long-lasting effects on performance in reptiles with ESD, and may provide the conditions required to favour the evolution of ESD.
Keywords: differential fitness model, Graptemys ouachitensis, righting response, temperature-dependent sex determination, turtle.
DOWNLOAD A FREE, FULL PDF COPY
IF you are connected using the IP of a subscribing institution (library, laboratory, etc.)
or through its VPN.
© 2004 Steven Freedberg. All EER articles are copyrighted by their authors. All authors endorse, permit and license Evolutionary Ecology Ltd. to grant its subscribing institutions/libraries the copying privileges specified below without additional consideration or payment to them or to Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. These endorsements, in writing, are on file in the office of Evolutionary Ecology, Ltd. Consult authors for permission to use any portion of their work in derivative works, compilations or to distribute their work in any commercial manner.
Subscribing institutions/libraries may grant individuals the privilege of making a single copy of an EER article for non-commercial educational or non-commercial research purposes. Subscribing institutions/libraries may also use articles for non-commercial educational purposes by making any number of copies for course packs or course reserve collections. Subscribing institutions/libraries may also loan single copies of articles to non-commercial libraries for educational purposes.
All copies of abstracts and articles must preserve their copyright notice without modification.