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Allometry and Sexual Dimorphism in the Snail-Eating Turtle Malayemys Macrocephala from the Chao Phraya River Basin of Central Thailand

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Allometry and Sexual Dimorphism in the Snail-Eating Turtle Malayemys Macrocephala from the Chao Phraya River Basin of Central Thailand Scholars Crossing Faculty Publications and Presentations Department of Biology and Chemistry 2006 Allometry and Sexual Dimorphism in the Snail-eating Turtle Malayemys macrocephala from the Chao Phraya River Basin of Central Thailand Timothy R. Brophy Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/bio_chem_fac_pubs Recommended Citation Brophy, Timothy R., "Allometry and Sexual Dimorphism in the Snail-eating Turtle Malayemys macrocephala from the Chao Phraya River Basin of Central Thailand" (2006). Faculty Publications and Presentations. 56. https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/bio_chem_fac_pubs/56 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Biology and Chemistry at Scholars Crossing. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of Scholars Crossing. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NOTES AND FIELD REPORTS 159 Acknowledgments. — First and foremost, I would like M.B. 1997. Diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) to thank K.W. Able, R. Hoden, and S. Hagan for mortality in crab pots. Conservation Biology 2:1166–1172. mentoring this project. I am especially grateful to S. ROUNTREE, R.A., SMITH, K.J., AND ABLE, K.W. 1992. Length frequency data for fishes and turtles from polyhaline subtidal Hagan and J. McLellan for their help with statistics, and and intertidal marsh creeks in southern New Jersey. Rutgers T.L. George for advice and assistance with population University, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Techni- modeling. Thanks to P. Clarke, M. Duva, M. Evens, A. cal Report No. 92–34. Hayes, K. Hunter, A. Macan, M. McGowan, P. McGrath, WHITE, G.C., ANDERSON, D.R., BURNHAM, K.P., AND OTIS, D.L. K. Ohleth, and M. Pietras for assisting with data 1982. Capture–recapture and removal methods for sampling collection, and to the editor and reviewers for their closed populations. Los Alamos National Laboratory Pub- helpful comments on this manuscript. This study was in lication LA-8787-NERP. fulfillment of an internship at the Institute of Marine and WOOD, R.C. AND HERLANDS, R. 1997. Turtles and tires: the impact Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University and an of roadkills on northern diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys undergraduate thesis at Humboldt State University. The terrapin terrapin, populations on the Cape May Peninsula, IMCS provided the opportunity and funding for this southern New Jersey, USA. In: VanAbbema, J. (Ed.). project. Research was conducted in accordance with Proceedings: Conservation, Restoration, and Management of Tortoises and Turtles—An International Conference. N.Y. Humboldt State University’s Institutional Animal Care Turtle and Tortoise Society, pp. 46–53. and Use Committee guidelines (IACUC protocol #01/ 02.W.10.A ) and under the NJ DEP Division of Fish, Received: 26 February 2003 Revised and Accepted: 15 December 2004 Game and Wildlife permit #0118 issued to Rutgers University Marine Field Station and its seasonal employees. Chelonian Conservation and Biology, 2006, 5(1): 159–165 Ó 2006 Chelonian Research Foundation LITERATURE CITED CAGLE, F.R. 1939. A system of marking turtles for future Allometry and Sexual Dimorphism in the identification. Copeia 1939:170–173. Snail-Eating Turtle Malayemys CAGLE, F.R. 1952. A Louisiana terrapin population (Mala- clemys). Copeia 1952:74–76. macrocephala from the Chao Phraya River CARR, A. 1952. Handbook of Turtles. Ithaca: Cornell University Basin of Central Thailand Press. GIBBONS, J.W., LOVICH, J.E., TUCKER, A.D., FITZSIMMONS, N.N., 1,2,3 TIMOTHY R. BROPHY AND GREENE, J.L. Demographic and ecological factors affecting conservation and management of the diamondback 1 terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) in South Carolina. Chelonian Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Conservation and Biology 4:(1):66–74. George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030 USA; 2 HEPPELL, S.S. 1998. Application of life-history theory and New Covenant Schools, Lynchburg, Virginia 24501 USA; 3 population model analysis to turtle conservation. Copeia Present Address: Department of Biology and Chemistry, 1998:367–375. Liberty University, 1971 University Boulevard, Lynchburg, HILDEBRAND, S.F. 1932. Growth of diamondback terrapins, size Virginia 24502 USA [[email protected]] attained, sex ratio, and longevity. Zoologica 9(15):551–563. BSTRACT HODEN,R.AND ABLE, K.W. 2003. Habitat use and road kill A . – Allometric growth and sexual dimorphism mortality of diamondback terrapins (Malaclemys terrapin)in of the shell is evident in Malayemys macrocephala from the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve at the Chao Phraya River Basin of central Thailand. Mullica River – Great Bay in southern New Jersey. Jacques Differences in allometric growth between males and Cousteau NERR Technical Report100–24. females produce sexually dimorphic adults. Adult HURD, L.E., SMEDES, G.W., AND DEAN, T.A. 1979. An ecological study of a natural population of diamondback terrapins females exhibit larger sizes and have relatively wider (Malaclemys t. terrapin) in a Delaware salt marsh. Estuaries and higher shells and longer plastra than males. 2:28–33. KREBS, C.J. 1998. Ecological Methodology. Second edition. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Brophy (2004) recently reviewed the systematics of LOVICH, J.E. AND GIBBONS, J.W. 1990. Age at maturity influences adult sex ratio in the turtle Malaclemys. Oikos 59:126–134. the genus Malayemys (Testudines: Geoemydidae [Bata- MONTEVECCHI, W.A. AND BURGER, J. 1975. Aspects of the guridae]) and argued for the presence of two taxonomically reproductive biology of the northern diamondback terrapin- distinct species. Analyses of head-stripe and shell Malaclemys terrapin terrapin. American Midland Naturalist characters revealed a clear pattern of geographic variation 94(1):166–178. that was consistent with the topography of Southeast Asia ROOSENBURG, W.M. 1996. Maternal condition and nest site choice: an alternative for the maintenance of environmental and the poor dispersal abilities of these turtles. Turtles from sex determination. American Zoologist 36:157–168. the Mekong River Basin retained the name M. subtrijuga ROOSENBURG, W.M., CRESKO, W., MODESITTE, M., AND ROBBINS, (Schlegel and Mu¨ller 1844), whereas those from the Chao 160 CHELONIAN CONSERVATION AND BIOLOGY, Volume 5, Number 1 – 2006 Phraya and Mae Klong river basins, coastal areas of from the median keel. The condition of bilateral characters southeastern Thailand, and the Malay Peninsula were was recorded from the right side of the carapace and the assigned the name M. macrocephala (Gray 1859). left side of the plastron unless damaged. Malayemys macrocephala is a small geoemydid turtle Tail morphology was the primary characteristic used reaching maximum sizes of 22 cm carapace length for sexual identification in this study. Sexual dimorphism (Srinarumol 1995). This species has pronounced sexual of this character is pronounced in both subadults and dimorphism, with females exhibiting larger overall body adults, with males having much longer and thicker tails sizes, proportionally wider carapaces, and shorter, nar- (Ernst and Barbour 1989; Srinarumol 1995; van Dijk and rower tails (Ernst and Barbour 1989; Srinarumol 1995; van Thirakhupt, in press). When tail morphology was not Dijk and Thirakhupt, in press). Populations of M. macro- available (shell and skeletal material; some dried speci- mens), information from museum records formed the basis cephala can be found in virtually all lowland areas of the of sexual identification. Assignment of specimens to Chao Phraya River Basin in central Thailand, where it is appropriate life stages (juvenile, subadult, adult) was the most common turtle (van Dijk and Thirakhupt, in based primarily on Srinarumol (1995), who distinguished press). adults from subadults based on the complete development Sexual dimorphism and allometry of the turtle shell of testes and ovaries, and subadults from juveniles based have been studied extensively (reviews in Mosimann on tail morphology. 1956; Berry and Shine 1980; Ernst and Lovich 1986; To test for allometric variation, CL was used as the Gibbons and Lovich 1990). My research interest focused independent variable for regression analyses (least squares on geographic variation and the possibility of regional method) of other shell characters. Nontransformed data differentiation and speciation in M. subtrijuga (sensu (mm) were utilized for all specimens that had a lato). Studies of regional variation require the recognition determinable sex (juveniles, subadults, adults), and males and elimination of character variation due to factors such and females were analyzed separately. The slope and as sex, age, and ecology. Without such considerations, intercept of each regression equation were tested for critical errors in taxonomic judgement are likely to occur. differences from zero using Student t-tests. Intercepts that Although M. macrocephala is a common turtle with were significantly different from zero (a ¼ 0.05) indicated high popularity in the pet trade, its biology is known only differential growth (i.e., allometry) of the characters through an assortment of anecdotal reports. I discovered involved (Mosimann 1958; Stickel and Bunck 1989). that despite the seeming abundance of M. macrocephala Sexual dimorphism of shell characters was examined voucher specimens, few had precise locality data. I was using the regression analyses detailed
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