Global Assessment of Reptile Distributions
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What are the intrinsic and extrinsic drivers of lizard clutch-size evolution?

14/6/2020

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In a recent publication in Global Ecology and Biogeography GARDians explored the global diversity and distribution of lizard clutch sizes.
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We tested the geographic factors that affect clutch sizes in across nearly 4000 lizard species. We found similar patterns to those that have long been known in birds but were never seriously studied in other groups of organisms: lizards lay large clutches at high latitudes and at highly seasonal regions. We postulate that high latitudes with their short, pronounced productivity peals both allow the production of large clutches and promote putting all the eggs in one basket – because the window of opportunity is short in highly seasonal regions. We hypothesize that this may further be a factor preventing taxa with fixed clutch sizes from colonizing high latitudes.

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Median log‐transformed clutch size in 96 km × 96 km grid cells globally. Top: all lizards; bottom: only lizards with variable clutch sizes. Note that the colour scale differs between the maps. To the right of each map is a curve showing a generalized additive model of the mapped variable (in black), the 95% confidence intervals of the mapped variable per 96‐km latitudinal band (shaded dark grey), and the range of values of the mapped variable per 96‐km latitudinal band (shaded light grey).
Authors: Shai Meiri, Uri Roll
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Viviparity does not affect the numbers and sizes of reptile offspring

25/1/2020

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In a recent publication in the Journal of Animal Ecology we show that the fundamental changes to the mode of life that viviparity brings to squamate females, were surprisingly not reflected in either the number of offspring produced at a single reproductive event (birth, clutch), or their size, or the total mass of offspring produced relative to the size of their mother. The distributions of all these traits in viviparous squamates are remarkably similar to those of oviparous ones. Incidentally we have found that the mass of a recently hatched squamate is (on average, despite much variation) similar to the mass of the egg its mother laid.
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Vipera bornmuelleri on Mt. Hermon (photo Uri Roll)
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Birds and Mammals are not that special (in offspring sizes)

25/1/2020

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In a recently published paper in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society Shai has shown that the spread of ratios of hatchling or neonate masses to adult masses is very similar across the three classes of amniotes (mammals, birds and, of course, reptiles). This suggests that relatively large offspring are the ancestral and dominant mode of amniotes and have not evolved in response to the elaborate parental care of endotherms
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The relative frequencies of the ratio of offspring size to adult size in mammals (grey), squamates (black) and birds (white). The peak at the smallest ratio is almost entirely composed of metatherians, but mammals (mostly bats) also dominate the highest ratio categories. Note that the range of values is narrower in birds than in either squamates or mammals.
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Global lizard trait database

29/8/2018

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In a recent publication in Global Ecology and Biogeograpy, I present a vast dataset of over 20 body size, ecological, thermal biology, geographic, phylogenetic and life history traits for global lizards.
Over the past 12 years I have been collecting trait data on lizards to complement GARD’s geographic data and allow asking interesting ecological, evolutionary and biogeographic questions – as well as, hopefully, informing conservation decisions. To this end I've now published geographical, morphological, ecological, physiological and life history data for the 6,657 known species of lizards. In the data paper I present descriptive statistics regarding these traits and point to avenues for future research using the dataset.
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Scincus scincus (Photo: Simon Jamison)
I hope these data will facilitate more study into the biology of these most fascinating of creatures, and that the database publication will encourage others to add yet more data and to correct errors I surely have made when assembling them.

Author: Shai Meiri
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Island life only works if you’re easy-going – uncovering predictions of the island syndrome for lizard clutch size variation

18/9/2017

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In a recent publication in the Journal of Biogeography we show that Insular lizards with variable clutch sizes follow the predictions of the island syndrome, while lizards with fixed clutches do not.
Life-histories of insular species are hypothesized to slow down, a phenomenon known as the "island syndrome". Insular individuals are thus expected to lay smaller clutches of larger eggs compared with individuals belonging to closely related mainland species. Most lizards have variable clutch sizes and can lay any number between one egg and a species-specific maximum, which can be well over 50 eggs. Many lizards, such as geckos and anoles, however, lay invariant small clutches of one or two eggs, and may thus be unable to manifest some aspects of the island syndrome. We tested whether insular species with either variable or invariant clutch sizes respond to insularity differently by analyzing egg, clutch, hatchling and female sizes and brood frequencies of 2,511 lizard species.
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Mediodactylus kotschyi (photo Rachel Schwarz)
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Pafilis & Rachel, Kalogria region NW Peloponnes (photo Shai Meiri)
We found that insular species with variable clutch sizes lay smaller clutches of larger eggs, from which larger hatchlings emerge, compared with mainland species, as expected by the island syndrome. Lizards with invariant clutch sizes, however, lay smaller clutches on islands and increase clutch frequency, compared with mainland species, perhaps because of limitations set by the female body cavity and pelvic opening. This may result from lower seasonality of tropical islands, leading to a greater spread of reproductive effort, or as a result from fluctuations in population densities caused by tropical storms. Our results also emphasize the importance of taking differences in life-history traits into account while studying lizard reproductive traits on large phylogenetic scales.
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Kampana islet (photo: Rachel Schwarz)
Author: Rachel Schwarz
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