Western North American Naturalist Volume 71 Number 2 Article 12 8-12-2011 Effects of habitat on clutch size of ornate tree lizards, Urosaurus ornatus Gregory Haenel Elon University, Elon, North Carolina,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wnan Part of the Anatomy Commons, Botany Commons, Physiology Commons, and the Zoology Commons Recommended Citation Haenel, Gregory (2011) "Effects of habitat on clutch size of ornate tree lizards, Urosaurus ornatus," Western North American Naturalist: Vol. 71 : No. 2 , Article 12. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/wnan/vol71/iss2/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Western North American Naturalist Publications at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Western North American Naturalist by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact
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[email protected]. Western North American Naturalist 71(2), © 2011, pp. 247–256 EFFECTS OF HABITAT ON CLUTCH SIZE OF ORNATE TREE LIZARDS, UROSAURUS ORNATUS Gregory Haenel1 ABSTRACT.—Clutch size is an important determinant of female reproductive success in reptiles. Although female body size explains much variation in clutch size, other important factors include differences in food availability, predation risk, morphology, and demography. Ornate tree lizards, Urosaurus ornatus, display extensive variation in life history traits, including clutch size. Tree lizards primarily use 2 distinct habitat types—trees and rock surfaces—which influence both the performance and morphology of this species and may affect life history traits such as clutch size. As food availability, micro- climate, and, potentially, predator escape probabilities differ between these 2 habitats, I predicted that tree- and rock- dwelling lizards would allocate resources toward clutch size differently.