Renata Brandt; Carlos A. Navas

“ In addition, rain patterns may influence reproductive traits in populations of the same lizard species. A comprehensive study with Sceloporus merriami shows that during wet years more arthropod preys are available and consumed, individual growth rates are higher and reproducing females are bigger. So, females exhibit greater size-specific fecundity in rainy than in dry years [41] , [42] . These studies support a link between growth rates (and thus body size) and habitat production via climate effects that may also apply to some lineages of tropical lizards, for example the tropidurines. ”

“ Few studies focus on how climate influences life history in lizard lineages exhibiting environment-specific reproductive traits. These lineages may be particularly sensitive to climate change [16] and thus influenced by current global climatic trends. Therefore, we asked how body size and clutch size have responded to climate in a group of tropical lizards, and how these two variables relate to each other. To answer these questions we gathered climatic data from historical databases and studied body and clutch size mainly from preserved specimens catalogued in zoological collections. ”

“ Within tropidurines, at least in Tropidurus spinulosus and T. torquatus, females with larger body size produce eggs with larger mass and volume [21] , [29] , so clutch size seems associated with relative clutch mass (RCM) in this group of lizards. Whereas larger tropidurines tend to exhibit bigger clutch size, several species exhibit smaller clutch size than predicted by the body size – clutch size regression model. Examples include the Amazonian species Plica plica, P. umbra and Uracentron flaviceps, which rely on vertical locomotion. ”

“ For example, the body size of tenebrionid beetles is larger on habitats with higher rainfall regimes and therefore enhanced productivity [45] . Indeed, several groups of animals, from mammals to insects, exhibit larger body size in areas with higher precipitation [43] – [46] . Our study indicates that tropical lizards may conform to this pattern, and in at least one species (Tropidurus itambere) the number of reproductive females correlates with amount of rainfall [47] . These considerations are relevant for lizard conservation in the context of climate change. ”

“ The parameter d returns a measure of phylogenetic signal — no phylogenetic signal when d = 0, existent and significant phylogenetic signal when d is significantly greater than zero [24] , [62] . These three models form a continuum between assuming a star phylogeny with no hierarchical structure (OLS) , a phylogeny that was specified by the user (PGLS) and a phylogeny that can exhibit intermediate values between the star and the specified hierarchical phylogeny (RegOU) . ”

“ We developed a criterion for choosing which climatic station better represented each locality using data from 42 climatic stations spread over a latitudinal gradient of more than 2800 km. On this data we performed a principal component analysis (PCA) , using SPSS 16.0.1 for Mac OSX, and the principal components scores were regressed against latitude and altitude in a multiple regression analysis. Therewith, we predicted that climatic change of 100 m in altitude is equivalent to 100 km over the latitudinal gradient studied in Brazil. ”

“ Pinto, ACS & Colli, GRR, “Reproductive ecology of Tropidurus torquatus (Squamata: Tropiduridae) in the highly seasonal Cerrado biome of Central Brazil.”, Journal of Herpetology 36: 82–91 1 2 3 Galdino, CAB; Assis, VB; Kiefer, MC & Van Sluys, M, “Reproduction and fat body cycle of Eurolophosaurus nanuzae (Sauria; Tropiduridae) from a seasonal montane habitat of Southeastern Brazil.”, Journal of Herpetology 37: 687–694 ↑ Howland, JM ”

“ Vitt, LJ & Lopez, PT, “Life on the edge: the ecology and life-history of the tropidurine iguanid lizard Uranoscodon superciliosum.”, Canadian Journal of Zoology 68: 1366–1373 1 2 3 4 Blomberg, SP; Garland, T & Ives, AR, “Testing for phylogenetic signal in comparative data: behavioral traits are more labile.”, Evolution 57: 717–745, pmid:12778543 ↑ Ashton, KG, “Comparing phylogenetic signal in intraspecific and interspecific body size datasets.”, Journal of Evolutionary Biology 17: 1157–1161, pmid:15312088 1 2 Kohlsdorf, T ”

“ Table 2 "Parameters of phylogenetic signal for body size (snout-vent length = SVL) and clutch size. (10.1371/journal.pone.0020040.t002) " Note. Significant values are indicated by*.
Table 3 "Comparisons of regression models testing the effects of body size (snout-vent length = SVL) , climatic component 1 (CC1) and climatic component 2 (CC2) on clutch size. (10.1371/journal.pone.0020040.t003) " Note. Akaike Information Criterion (AIC; smaller is better) is computed as (2 * ln maximum likelihood) (2 * no. parameters) . ”

“ Grizante, MB; Navas, CA & Herrel, A, “Head shape evolution in Tropidurinae lizards: does locomotion constrain diet?”, Journal of Evolutionary Biology 21: 781–790, pmid:18384539 1 2 Grizante, MB; Navas, CA ”