How do viviparous and oviparous lizards reproduce in Patagonia? A comparative study of three species of Liolaemus

MEDINA, MARLIN AND; IBARGUENGOYTIA NORA R

JOURNAL OF ARID ENVIRONMENTS

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Año: 2010

0140-1963

Resumen: In the cold temperate climate of Patagonia, reproduction and growth of ectotherms are restricted to brief seasons, particularly at high latitudes. This energy constraint has affected the evolution of life history traits such as sexual maturity, clutch size, offspring size, reproductive effort, and fecundity. Limitations on the timing of reproductive events and the allocation of energy to offspring have a vital role in the fitness of the species, and it is expected that oviparous and viviparous lizards respond with inter- and intra-specific differences to different environmental conditions partly because of thermal constraints on the development of nestlings. We studied the reproductive cycles of two populations in Patagonia, Argentina (43º and 46º S), of each of three species: the southernmost oviparous liolaemids, Liolaemus bibronii, and Liolaemus boulengeri, and the viviparous Liolaemus lineomaculatus.