title: Habitat- and season-specific temperatures affect phenotypic development of hatchling lizards.
abstract: Embryonic environments influence phenotypic development, but relatively few experiments have explored the effects of natural environmental variation. We incubated eggs of the lizard Anolis sagrei under conditions that mimicked natural spatial and temporal thermal variation to determine their effects on offspring morphology and performance. Incubation temperatures mimicked two microhabitats (open, shade) at two different times of the incubation season (April, July). Egg survival, incubation duration and offspring size were influenced by interactions between habitat- and season-specific nest temperatures, and locomotor performance was influenced primarily by temporal factors. These findings highlight the importance of spatial and temporal environmental variation in generating variation in fitness-related phenotypes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA prp0005@auburn.edu.|Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.
authors.forename: P R
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8109-7649
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Pearson
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.|Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Warner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017753:Ecosystem; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000502:physiology; D047108:Embryonic Development; D005260:Female; D008116:Lizards / Q000196:embryology* / Q000254:growth & development; D008124:Locomotion; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D012621:Seasons; D013696:Temperature
keywords: Anolis sagrei; developmental plasticity; incubation temperature; phenology