Cfreptiles & Amphibians
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HTTPS://JOURNALS.KU.EDU/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSREPTILES • VOL &15, AMPHIBIANS NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 27(3):415–418189 • DEC 2020 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURETail ARTICLES Bifurcation in a Marine Iguana, . Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: OnAmblyrhynchus the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation cristatus of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ......................(Reptilia: Joshua M. Kapfer 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: Squamata:A Hypothetical Excursion Iguanidae) ............................................................................................................................, from Isla RobertSanta W. Henderson 198Cruz, RESEARCH ARTICLES . The Texas Horned Lizard in CentralGalápagos and Western Texas ....................... Emily Islands Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida .............................................Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212 Cristina Arrivillaga1,2 and Tom W. Brown1,2,3 CONSERVATION ALERT 1Operation Wallacea, Hope House, Old Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire PE23 4EX, UK ([email protected]) . World’s2Mesoamerican Mammals in and Crisis Caribbean ............................................................................................................................... Network for the Conservation of Amphibians and Reptiles (Red.............................. Mesoherp Network) 220 . More Than Mammals3Kanahau ............................................................................................................................... Utila Research and Conservation Facility, Isla de Utila, IB 3420,....................................... Honduras 223 . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225 HUSBANDRY . Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226 utotomy is an animal’s ability to voluntarily amputate that ability with age (e.g., Iguana iguana; Etheridge 1967). a specific bodyPROFILE part, limb, or appendage (Bateman and However, although present in many iguanids, fracture planes A . Fleming 2009). CaudalKraig Adler: or A Lifetime tail autotomy,Promoting Herpetology considered ................................................................................................ an do not occur in Fijian Iguanas Michael L.(Brachylophus Treglia 234 spp.), Galápagos ancestral trait inCOMMENTARY most squamate families, is used frequently as Land Iguanas (Conolophus spp.), the Lesser Antillean Iguana a defensive strategy. The against Turtles Havepredators Been Watching (Bateman Me ........................................................................................................................ and Fleming (Iguana delicatissima), and the Eric Marine Gangloff 238Iguana (Amblyrhynchus 2009). Most lizardsBOOK are REVIEW able to regenerate amputated tails, cristatus) (Pregill and Worthy 2003). A loss of fracture planes and most species .possessThreatened adaptations Amphibians of the that World both edited limitby S.N. tissueStuart, M. Hoffmann,and an J.S. inability Chanson, N.A.to autotomize Cox, the tail appears to be related damage in response toR. Berridge,injury P. and Ramani, initiate and B.E. coordinated Young .............................................................................................................. regen- to adaptations involving tail Robert specializations Powell 243 that are critical to erative responses (Lozito and Tuan 2017). Lizards capable of survival (Fleming et al. 2013). Losing a specialized tail could tail autotomy possess CONSERVATION caudal vertebrae RESEARCH with REPORTS: breakage Summaries planes, of Publishedresult Conservation in a loss Research of tail Reports function ................................. and incapacitation 245 until regen- NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 preformed areas NEWBRIEFSof weakness ............................................................................................................................... that enable the tail to detach eration occurs,....................................................... thus rendering autotomy 248 more costly than or self-amputate whenEDITORIAL external INFORMATION pressure is ...............................................................................................................................applied (Etheridge beneficial (Arnold 1984). ...................... 251 1967). RegenerationFOCUS is important ON CONSERVATION following: Acaudal Project Youautotomy Can Support ............................................................................................... Eleven subspecies of A. cristatus occur 252 separately on thir- (Clause and Capaldi 2006; Gilbert et al. 2013), as it ensures teen islands in the Galápagos Archipelago (Miralles et al. the cost of temporarily losing the tail will not affect the long- 2017) and all were believed to be incapable of caudal autot- term health or mobility of the individual. omy. Tail regeneration and bifurcation was reported only Research has demonstrated Frontthat Cover.some Shannon iguanids Plummer. are able recentlyBack Cover.in two Michael individuals Kern in the subspecies A. cristatus crista- Totat et velleseque audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo to autotomize their tails duringestibus early inveliquo ontogeny velique rerchil but lose tusestibus from inveliquo Isla Fernandinavelique rerchil and A. cristatus hassi from Isla Santa erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque fugiatis maionsequat eumque moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as accullabo. Fig. 1. An adult Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) with a bifurcated tail basking in close proximity to another adult on a dock in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos. Photograph © Cristina Arrivillaga. Copyright is held by the authors. Articles in R&A are made available under a 415 Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 1098-6324 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. ARRIVILLAGA AND BROWN REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 27(3):415–418 • DEC 2020 Cruz (Barr et al. 2019). Herein we describe a third instance of suggests that limited access to those resources can be fatal. tail regeneration and bifurcation, also in A. cristatus hassi from This individual might have been able to survive by foraging Isla Santa Cruz. on intertidal algae exposed during low tides (Shepherd and At 1000 h on 4 August 2019, CA observed approxi- Hawkes 2005). Also, during times of food scarcity, Wikelski mately 30–40 Marine Iguanas basking on a dock in Puerto and Wrege (2000) indicated that iguanas expanded their Ayora, Santa Cruz Island (0.7433°S, 90.3157°W), and diets by scavenging on the feces of sea lions and conspecifics, noticed that one individual had a bifurcated tail (Fig. 1). That regurgitated material, and sea lion afterbirths, as well as by iguana appeared to be missing slightly more than half of its occasionally consuming land plants. Individuals disabled by tail, which had begun regenerating as two distinct branches. broken tails, even if partially regenerated, might be forced to Other than the broken tail, the lizard appeared to be healthy exploit a more opportunistic and unconventional diet. and exhibited no obvious signs of malnourishment. Although Tail regeneration and abnormalities such as bifurca- smaller than another adult in close proximity, the difference tion have been described in many species of lizards, includ- in size could be attributable to that individual being either a ing iguanas (e.g., Spiny-tailed Iguanas, Ctenosaura spp.) that female or a subadult. Alternatively, because we do not know exhibit caudal autotomy (Hayes et al. 2012; Conzendy et al. when the original injury occurred, a tail break during early 2013; Ariano-Sánchez and Gil 2016; Koleska et al. 2017). ontogeny could have stunted growth by limiting the lizard’s Malformations usually are associated with regeneration fail- ability to swim and forage. Unfortunately, because we did ures following injuries or incomplete tail breakage, as opposed not have permission to collect morphometric data, we were to congenital malformations (Lynn 1950; Conzendy et al. unable to confirm that individual’s health, age, or sex. 2013). As in other lizards, tail breakage in iguanids can be Marine Iguanas forage underwater for algae and possess the result of intraspecific aggression due to crowding (Perez- laterally compressed tails that do not differ substantially from Buitrago et al. 2010), sexual aggression during mating those of terrestrial relatives but are crucial for swimming and (Iverson et al. 2004), or failed predation attempts (Hayes et diving (Dawson et al. 1977; Bedford and Christian 1996). al. 2012). Tails are thought to be indispensable for survival; however, We believe crowding and intraspecific competition are the individual we encountered