Nesting habitat would not affect the structure of the eggshells of Caiman latirostris (Crocodylia, Alligatoridae)

FERNÁNDEZ MS; DI ROSSI C; FRUTOS AE; SIMONCINI M

La Plata

Congreso; XIX Congreso de Herpetologia; 2019

Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo y AHA

In Santa Fe province, Broad-snouted caiman nest in three different habitats: forest, savanna and floating vegetation. In this study we compared eggshell characteristic (thickness, ornamentation, pores density and pores diameter) in eggs that complete incubation period by nests in the wild. The aim of this research was to evaluate if at the end of the incubation period, the eggshells suffer a differential degradation of the eggshell as a result of different condition of the nesting habitats. We collected 37 nests at the end of their incubation period or previous to offspring hatch, during late February and March 2016 (12 nests), and 2017 (25 nests). We analyze our data with General Linear Model Mix, taking into account the predictive variable to the incubation environment, the random variable was the nest of origin of the eggshells and the response variables are the followings: thickness, ornamentation, pores density and pores diameter. We did not find differences between each habitat in neither of the variables under study (P>0.07). The principal result of this research involves the fact that, the eggs independently of the habitat in which they were incubated will suffer the same structural change; the differences find were between nests but independently of the habitats from which they belong. In future studies we will evaluate the changes in the microstructure of the eggshell from the beginning of the period of incubation to the end, with the objective to observe the process which may occur on the eggshell in the complete period of incubation.