Are lizards feeling the heat? A tale of ecology and evolution under two temperatures

By Shai Meiri, A. Bauer, L. Chirio, G. Colli, I. Das, Tiffany M. Doan, A. Feldman, F. Herrera, M. Novosolov, P. Pafilis and 5 more. 2013

145 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Aim Temperature influences most components of animal ecology and life history ‐ but what kind of temperature? Physiologists usually examine the influence of body temperatures, while biogeographers and macroecologists tend to focus on environmental temperatures. We aim to examine the relationship between these two measures, to determine the factors that affect lizard body temperatures and to test the effect of both temperature measures on lizard life history. Location World-wide. Methods We used a large (861 species) global dataset of lizard body temperatures,and the mean annual temperatures across their geographic ranges to examine the relationships between body and mean annual temperatures.We then examined factors influencing body temperatures, and tested for the influence of both on ecological and life-history traits while accounting for the influence of shared ancestry. Results Body temperatures and mean annual temperatures are uncorrelated. However, accounting for activity time (nocturnal species have low body temperatures), use of space (fossorial and semi-aquatic species are ‘colder’), insularity (mainland species are ‘hotter’) and phylogeny, the two temperatures are positively correlated. High body temperatures are only associated with larger hatchlings and increased rates of biomass production. Annual temperatures are positively correlated with clutch frequency and annual longevity, and negatively correlated with clutch size, age at first reproduction and longevity.

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/140efb311d66bca4375c7bc2ddd4dbbb96b00a15

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Citations in the corpus

Biases in the current knowledge of threat status in lizards, and bridging the ‘assessment gap’ (2016, unknown): “We collected data on lizard traits from the literature, and in a few cases, in the field (see Meiri, 2008; Meiri et al., 2012, 2013, 2014; Scharf et al., 2015 for details).”
Sexual dimorphism of heads and abdomens: Different approaches to 'being large' in female and male lizards (2013, methodology): “In addition, we obtained literature data on the clutch size of 419 lizard species (mainly from Meiri et al., 2013; see Supporting information, Appendix S1).”
Late bloomers and baby boomers: ecological drivers of longevity in squamates and the tuatara (2015, methodology): “Recent studies have differentiated between the habitat temperature and the actual body temperature of lizards (Meiri et al., 2013), and the latter may have a higher impact on ectotherm survival (Conti, 2008).”
Hot and bothered: Using trait-based approaches to assess climate change vulnerability in reptiles (2016, background): “However, the impacts of climate change on reptiles potentially affect all aspects of their life-history (Meiri et al., 2013).”
The global diversity and distribution of lizard clutch sizes (2020, background): “See Table 1 and Supporting Information Appendix S2 for parameter estimates (contrasts and slopes). female can compensate for the reduced number of eggs by laying more frequently (Meiri et al., 2013) – a requirement that stable environments allow for.”
Thermal-safety margins and the necessity of thermoregulatory behavior across latitude and elevation (2014, unknown): “Previous observations of latitudinal differences in habitat use and empirical body temperatures in reptiles confirm this pattern in nature (4, 15, 21, 32) (see range of empirical body temperatures as a function of latitude in Fig.”
Traits of lizards of the world: Variation around a successful evolutionary design (2018, background): “Clutch size is further positively associated with latitude (Cody, 1966; Griebeler & Bohning‐Gaese, 2004; Jetz, Sekercioglu, & Bohning‐Gaese, 2008; Meiri et al., 2013; Moreau, 1944) (with female mass, insularity, and family as covariates, the absolute value of latitude has a slope of 0.0025 ±…”
Body sizes and diversification rates of lizards, snakes, amphisbaenians and the tuatara (2016, background): “…in shape of species of different phylogenetic affinities, and, in lizards, varying degrees of leg development (Meiri, 2010; Pincheira-Donoso et al., 2011; Feldman & Meiri, 2013; Meiri et al., 2013; Novosolov et al., 2013; Scharf et al., 2015; and new equations developed here: Appendix S2b).”