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Reptile Embryos Lack the Opportunity to Thermoregulate by Moving within the Egg


Metadata FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributorRory Telemeco, telemeco@uw.eduen_US
dc.creatorTelemeco, Rory
dc.creatorGangloff, Eric
dc.creatorCordero, Gerardo
dc.creatorMitchell, Timothy
dc.creatorBodensteiner, Brooke
dc.creatorHolden, Kaitlyn
dc.creatorMitchell, Sarah
dc.creatorPolich, Rebecca
dc.creatorJanzen, Fredric
dc.date.accessioned2023-05-17T20:49:52Z
dc.date.available2023-05-17T20:49:52Z
dc.date.created2016
dc.identifier10.1086/686628en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/686628en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://aurora.auburn.edu/handle/11200/50520
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.35099/aurora-588
dc.description.abstractHistorically, egg-bound reptile embryos were thought to passively thermoconform to the nest environment. However, recent observations of thermal taxis by embryos of multiple reptile species have led to the widely discussed hypothesis that embryos behaviorally thermoregulate. Because temperature affects development, such thermoregulation could allow embryos to control their fate far more than historically assumed. We assessed the opportunity for embryos to behaviorally thermoregulate in nature by examining thermal gradients within natural nests and eggs of the common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina; which displays embryonic thermal taxis) and by simulating thermal gradients within nests across a range of nest depths, egg sizes, and soil types. We observed little spatial thermal variation within nests, and thermal gradients were poorly transferred to eggs. Furthermore, thermal gradients sufficiently large and constant for behavioral thermoregulation were not predicted to occur in our simulations. Gradients of biologically relevant magnitude have limited global occurrence and reverse direction twice daily when they do exist, which is substantially faster than embryos can shift position within the egg. Our results imply that reptile embryos will rarely, if ever, have the opportunity to behaviorally thermoregulate by moving within the egg. We suggest that embryonic thermal taxis instead represents a play behavior, which may be adaptive or selectively neutral, and results from the mechanisms for behavioral thermoregulation in free-living stages coming online prior to hatching.en_US
dc.formatPDFen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Chicago Pressen_US
dc.relation.ispartofAmerican Naturalisten_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries0003-0147en_US
dc.rights©The Authors 2016. ©University of Chicago Press 2016. This is this the version of record published by the University of Chicago Press. It is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Item should be cited as: Telemeco, Rory S., Eric J. Gangloff, Gerardo A. Cordero, Timothy S. Mitchell, Brooke L. Bodensteiner, Kaitlyn G. Holden, Sarah M. Mitchell, Rebecca L. Polich, and Fredric J. Janzen. Reptile embryos lack the opportunity to thermoregulate by moving within the egg. The American Naturalist 188, no. 1 (2016): E13-E27.en_US
dc.subjectChelydra serpentinaen_US
dc.subjectmicroclimen_US
dc.subjectnesten_US
dc.subjectplayen_US
dc.subjectsoilen_US
dc.subjectsnappingturtleen_US
dc.subjecttemperatureen_US
dc.titleReptile Embryos Lack the Opportunity to Thermoregulate by Moving within the Eggen_US
dc.typeTexten_US
dc.type.genreJournal Article, Academic Journalen_US
dc.citation.volume188en_US
dc.citation.issue1en_US
dc.citation.spageE13en_US
dc.citation.epageE27en_US
dc.description.statusPublisheden_US
dc.description.peerreviewYesen_US
dc.creator.orcid0000-0002-2101-3295en_US
dc.creator.orcid0000-0002-7136-769Xen_US
dc.creator.orcid0000-0002-9137-1741en_US

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