INVESTIGADORES
LEIVA Pamela Maria De Lujan
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Are the head of hatchling females and males similar? a Geometric morphometry approach
Autor/es:
PAMELA ML LEIVA; LEONARDO J. SCARPA; CAROLINA IMHOFF; MELINA S. SIMONCINI; HERNÁN CIOCAN; PATRICIA AMAVET; CARLOS I. PIÑA
Lugar:
CHETUMAL
Reunión:
Congreso; XXV Working Meeting CSG-UICN; 2022
Institución organizadora:
CSG
Resumen:
Studies of crocodilians cephalic region are relevant in fields of ecology,systematics, evolution, and conservation. In addition, these studies have the potentialto be applied to sexing of individuals, which would allow sexual discrimination ofhatching to be as effective as they are for adult crocodiles and could replace currentsexing techniques (surgical examination of gonads and histological cuts). In thisstudy we analyzed the cephalic region of Caiman latirostris neonates using geometricmorphometry tools, with the aim of determining if there are morphological differencesassociated with hatchling sex. We collected 11 clutch and incubated at a constant32°C (males and females producing temperature), which would allow us to evaluateif there is sexual dimorphism in the cephalic region in dorsal view of hatchlings. Weused canonical variate analysis and a principal component analysis for data analysis.When analyzing the data from all the clutches together, we found no differencesbetween males and females. However, when we analyzed clutches including the sitesas grouping variable, we registered sexual dimorphism in hatchlings, and also, weobserved differences on hatchling morphology from different sites. Our results suggestthat geometric morphometry technique allows, through analysis of dorsal images ofcephalic region, a reliable sexing of the hatchlings, without having to sacrifice theanimals for the internal gonads inspection or waiting for the growth of the individuals.