Microgeographic variation in locomotor traits among lizards in a human-built environment
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Animal Behavior, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Coupled Natural and Human Systems
- Keywords
- Locomotion, Morphometrics, Context-dependence, Lizard, Podarcis erhardii, Local adaptation, Sprint speed
- Copyright
- © 2016 Donihue
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2016. Microgeographic variation in locomotor traits among lizards in a human-built environment. PeerJ PrePrints 4:e1737v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1737v1
Abstract
Microgeographic variation in fitness-relevant traits may be more common than previously appreciated. The fitness of many vertebrates is directly related to their locomotor capacity, a whole-organism trait integrating behavior, morphology, and physiology. Because locomotion is inextricably related to context, I hypothesized that it might vary with habitat structure in a wide-ranging lizard, Podarcis erhardii, found in the Greek Cyclade Islands. I compared lizard populations living on human-built rock walls, a novel habitat with complex vertical structure, with nearby lizard populations that are naive to human-built infrastructure and live in flat, loose-substrate habitat. I tested for differences in morphology, behavior, and performance. Lizards from built sites were larger and had significantly (and relatively) longer forelimbs and hindlimbs. The differences in hindlimb morphology were especially pronounced for distal components – the foot and longest toe. These morphologies facilitated a significant behavioral shift in jumping propensity across a rocky experimental substrate. I found no difference in maximum velocity between these populations, however females originating from wall sites potentially accelerated faster over the rocky experimental substrate. The variation between these closely neighboring populations suggests that the lizards inhabiting walls have experienced a suite of trait changes enabling them to take advantage of the novel habitat structure created by humans.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.
Supplemental Information
Supplemental Table 1
Results of correlations between three morphometrics and four performance traits. All morphometrics and performance measures were Log10 transformed to meet assumptions of normality.