Independent influence of thermoregulatory cost on the lower and upper set-points of a heliothermic lizard

Wind of change: a diurnal skink thermoregulates between cooler set-points and for an increased amount of time in the presence of wind

“…This effect was also observed here with the identity of the skink accounting for some of the observed variance in the amount of time spent thermoregulating, the number of shuttling events, mean T sk , mean absolute deviation and TPR. A similar result was reported for T. torquatus in that while the optimal amount of thermoregulation varied among individuals, different individuals made different thermoregulatory decisions under similar conditions ( Leirião et al, 2019 ). In other words, there is evidence that thermoregulatory ‘personalities’ exist within skinks that are evident across treatments.…”

“…Previous studies have also shown that lizards selected cooler temperatures when the costs of thermoregulating increased, though not specifically by wind. For example, the small, heliothermic iguanid Tropidurus torquatus selected cooler upper and lower set-points when the cost of locomotion was increased ( Leirião et al, 2019 ). However, in T. torquatus , overall mean temperatures also decreased as cost increased, whereas we observed similar mean temperatures among treatments.…”

Native Lizards Living in Brazilian Cities: Effects of Developmental Environments on Thermal Sensitivity and Morpho-Functional Associations of Locomotion

“…Despite the lack of information about thermal regimes in the nests of T. catalanensis, literature records indicate an average temperature near 29 °C in nests of other lizards found in urban areas, such as Anolis cristatellus (Tiatragul et al, 2020). Although the two developmental thermal regimes used here are within the range of field temperatures recorded for Tropidurus lizards (Kohlsdorf and Navas, 2006;Leirião et al, 2019;Maia-Carneiro and Navas, 2021), the developmental temperature of 24 °C established in the lab for T. catalanensis might be interpreted as a cold environment, especially considering that preferred temperatures for tropidurine lizards are usually above 30 °C (Kohlsdorf and Navas, 2006). Morphological differences in Tropidurinae lizards are often associated to ecological divergence (Kohlsdorf et al, 2001;Grizante et al, 2010) and explain interspecific variation in locomotor performance (Kohlsdorf and Navas, 2012).…”

“…To avoid genetic bias, we separated the clutches and equally distributed the eggs between two developmental environments: 24 °C (cold, N = 40) and 30 °C (warm, N = 40); we did not consider the thermal regime of 36 °C (overheat) as a third developmental condition because this temperature seems unfeasible for the development of T. catalanensis embryos (see Rossigalli-Costa et al, 2021). Due to the lack of information for nest temperatures in T. catalanensis, we chose developmental temperatures within the range of air, substrate and body temperatures recorded for Tropidurus lizards at São Simão and other Brazilian cities where this species is found (see Kohlsdorf and Navas, 2006;Leirião et al, 2019;Maia-Carneiro and Navas, 2021), which also agree with the range of preferred temperatures recorded for Tropidurus lizards in thermal gradients (31 °C to 37 °C, see Kohlsdorf and Navas, 2006). Incubation temperatures were controlled by Bio-Oxygen Demand (BOD) incubators (Eletrolab ® ), and the precision of thermal regimes was confirmed using data loggers (NOVUS ® ).…”

“…The genus Tropidurus comprises habitat specialists but also generalist species (see Werneck et al, 2015), and records suggest that some species are relatively prone to occupy new niches and persist despite the surrounding urban growth (Rand and Rand, 1966). Another positive aspect of Tropidurus lizards for studies focusing on phenotypic aspects of species found in urban sites is the extensive literature available for eco-morphology (e.g., Kohlsdorf et al, 2001;Kohlsdorf et al, 2008;Grizante et al, 2010;Tulli et al, 2016), behavior (e.g., Leirião et al, 2019;Rodrigues and Kohlsdorf, 2019), locomotion (Kohlsdorf and Navas, 2012;Brandt et al, 2015) and physiology (Longhini et al, 2019) in this group, including information for development (Py-Daniel et al, 2017;Rossigalli-Costa et al, 2021) and thermal relationships (Kohlsdorf and Navas, 2006;Leirião et al, 2019;Piantoni et al, 2019) of species found in urban areas. In this study, we isolated temperature effects from other environmental parameters likely affected by urbanization (e.g., hydrological regimes or pollutants) and evaluate developmental plasticity in offspring of a Tropidurus species commonly found in Brazilian cities.…”