As animals develop, demands on their physical form often change in response to ecological pressures. Structures associated with locomotion and habitat use can be particularly affected. Due to their smaller size, juvenile animals are often under selection to evade a larger and more diverse set of predators compared to adults of the same species. Adult Desert Horned Lizards, Phrynosoma platyrhinos, use a dorsoventral “shielding” as an anti-predator strategy to gape-limit potential predators. Because this strategy is likely size-dependent, we anticipated that juvenile lizards likely use different anti-predator strategies that would result in differences in habitat use, sprint performance, and morphology between age groups. We found differences in sprint speed and morphology, but not habitat use. Juvenile lizards had proportionally longer forelimbs and faster relative sprint speeds, potentially making juveniles more maneuverable than adults, though more work is needed to confirm this relationship. Our results suggest that selection for shielding behavior may constrain body shape throughout development, while shifts in limb lengths during development can enable juvenile lizards to evade their wider set of potential predators.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
October 2024
Research Article|
September 23 2024
Differences between Juveniles and Adults in Habitat Use, Sprint Performance, and Morphology in the Desert Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma platyrhinos
Ichthyology & Herpetology (2024) 112 (3): 347–352.
Article history
Received:
June 06 2023
Accepted:
April 27 2024
Citation
Kelly M. Diamond, Claire Olson, Kaera L. Utsumi, Maria A. Eifler, Doug A. Eifler; Differences between Juveniles and Adults in Habitat Use, Sprint Performance, and Morphology in the Desert Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma platyrhinos. Ichthyology & Herpetology 1 October 2024; 112 (3): 347–352. doi: https://doi.org/10.1643/h2023042
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Could not validate captcha. Please try again.
Sign in via your Institution
Sign in via your Institution
21
Views
Citing articles via
Editorial notes and news
Ryan J. Thoni
History of the Monographic Series Fishes of the Western North Atlantic
Bruce B. Collette, Katherine E. Bemis
John Andrew (Jack) Musick (1941–2021)
Eric J. Hilton, Charles F. Cotton, R. Dean Grubbs