INIBIOMA   20415
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES EN BIODIVERSIDAD Y MEDIOAMBIENTE
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
You are what you eat: an analysis of morphological specializations to diet in Iguanid lizards.
Autor/es:
HERREL A; VANHOOYDONCK B; CRUZ F
Lugar:
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Reunión:
Encuentro; SICB Annual Meeting 2011; 2011
Institución organizadora:
The society for integrative and comparative biology
Resumen:
Small lizards are typically considered opportunistic
foragers on invertebrate prey showing little or no dietary specialization.
However, recent studies have demonstrated that many small-bodied lizards show
dietary specializations including carnivory, herbivory, myrmecophagy in
addition to the more common insectivorous or omnivorous diets. Given that small
body size may constrain these animals in their ability to rely on postcranial
food reduction mechanisms, we predict distinct adaptations to the cranial
system in lizards that specialize on different food resources. Specifically, we
predict a greater investment in jaw adductors in herbivorous species allowing
them to maximize bite force for a given head size. Additionally, we predict that
the relative proportions of the different jaw adductor groups will be different
for carnivores versus herbivores to allow maximal bite force generation at
large and small gape angles. Finally we predict low bite forces, a decrease in
jaw adductor mass and a greater development of the hyolingual musculature in
myrmecophagous specialists that swallow prey whole. Our results based on
dissections of the cranial musculature in over 30 species of small-bodied
iguanian lizards largely support our a priori predictions and show that
small-bodied iguanian lizards show distinct specializations of the cranial
muscle system allowing them to specialize of distinct food resources.