Life-History Patterns of Lizards of the World

Identification of mechanisms that promote variation in life-history traits is critical to understand the evolution of divergent reproductive strategies. Here we compiled a large life-history data set (674 lizard populations, representing 297 species from 263 sites globally) to test a number of hypot...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American naturalist 2016-06, Vol.187 (6), p.689-705
Main Authors: Mesquita, Daniel O., Costa, Gabriel C., Colli, Guarino R., Costa, Taís B., Shepard, Donald B., Vitt, Laurie J., Pianka, Eric R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animals
Biological Evolution
Climate
Clutch Size
Evolution
Female
Lacertilia
Life Cycle Stages
Lizards - classification
Lizards - physiology
Male
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Precipitation
Reproduction - physiology
Reptiles & amphibians
Viviparity, Nonmammalian
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Identification of mechanisms that promote variation in life-history traits is critical to understand the evolution of divergent reproductive strategies. Here we compiled a large life-history data set (674 lizard populations, representing 297 species from 263 sites globally) to test a number of hypotheses regarding the evolution of life-history traits in lizards. We found significant phylogenetic signal in most life-history traits, although phylogenetic signal was not particularly high. Climatic variables influenced the evolution of many traits, with clutch frequency being positively related to precipitation and clutches of tropical lizards being smaller than those of temperate species. This result supports the hypothesis that in tropical and less seasonal climates, many lizards tend to reproduce repeatedly throughout the season, producing smaller clutches during each reproductive episode. Our analysis also supported the hypothesis that viviparity has evolved in lizards as a response to cooler climates. Finally, we also found that variation in trait values explained by clade membership is unevenly distributed among lizard clades, with basal clades and a few younger clades showing the most variation. Our global analyses are largely consistent with life-history theory and previous results based on smaller and scattered data sets, suggesting that these patterns are remarkably consistent across geographic and taxonomic scales.
ISSN:0003-0147
1537-5323
DOI:10.1086/686055