Hemipenial Allometry in Anolis grahami

In animals with internal fertilization, the male genitalia often vary greatly, have complex morphology, and show fast rates of evolution. In studies of the evolution of such male genitalia, static allometric relationships have been used extensively. Static allometry is an intraspecific measure of pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of herpetology Vol. 49; no. 3; pp. 462 - 467
Main Authors Klaczko, Julia, Stuart, Yoel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles 01.09.2015
Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles
Subjects
allometry
Anolis
body size
evolution
INTEGRATIVE HERPETOLOGY
lizards
male genitalia
MORPHOLOGY
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Summary:In animals with internal fertilization, the male genitalia often vary greatly, have complex morphology, and show fast rates of evolution. In studies of the evolution of such male genitalia, static allometric relationships have been used extensively. Static allometry is an intraspecific measure of proportional size of a particular structure with respect to the body size. We examined the static allometric pattern of the genitalia of two allopatric subspecies of a Jamaican Anolis lizard, Anolis grahami grahami and A. grahami aquarum, and compared our findings to observed patterns in nongenitalian traits: limbs and the dewlap. Limb and dewlap traits showed similar allometric slopes, with some variation in the intercept, whereas hemipenial traits showed different slopes. The hemipenial traits of Anolis g. grahami exhibited a statistically significant negative allometry, while A. g. aquarum showed slope values that were not statistically different from isometry. Our results corroborate the idea that genital traits evolve faster than other morphological body traits.
Bibliography:http://dx.doi.org/10.1670%2F13-152
ISSN:0022-1511
1937-2418
DOI:10.1670/13-152