BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

[Methods] Author contributions: Monasterio, Beukema and Gómes lead field (lizard sampling) and lab (estimation of thermal limits and measurement of body weights) work, and Monasterio and Araújo designed experiments. Herrando-Pérez conceived the idea of the two research manuscripts (Functional Ecology, Journal of Animal Ecology) and submitted the data to Dryad. Funding: MBA partly funded through CGL2011-26852 project of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Field and experimental work funded by IC&DT 1/SAESCTN/ALENT-07-0224-FEDER-001755 project led by MBA. Acknowledgements: We thank the Biological Station of “El Ventorrillo” for hosting the field team and for providing the thermal experimental facilities essential for this research. We also thank Tim Leerschool, Filipe Serrano and Matthijs Hollanders for their support in the field. Collection permits: Samples, experiments and use of experimental animals supported for Portuguese populations by permits 360 to 362/2014/CAPT and 550 to 552/2014/CAPT (Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas), and for Spanish populations by permits (autonomous communities in parenthesis hereafter) SGYB/EF/FJRH Re-9H/13 & SGYB/AF/DBP Re-79y131/14 (Andalucía), 2014-500201724/2014/02343 & INAGA/5000201/24/2013/04434 (Aragón), DGMEN/SEN/avp_13_025_aut & DGMEN/SEN/avp_14_020_aut (Castilla La Mancha), P/CYL/101/2013 & EP/CYL/106/2014 (Castilla y León), CN0023/14/ACA1587(14) (Extremadura), 2566/RX131316//clave031/2013 & 2241/RX123724//clave018/2014 (Galicia), and 10/033298.9/13 & 10/013907.9/14 (Madrid). [Usage Notes] Content of dataset: Critical Thermal Maxima (CTmax) and Critical Thermal Minima (CTmax) and body weights of 304 male individuals belonging to 59 populations and 15 species of Iberian lizards (Dryad doi: 10.5061/dryad.1553pc3). Body weight, CTmax and CTmin available for all populations except the Moncayo/Soria/Spain population of Podarcis muralis for which CTmin was not measured. Dataset set used in two research manuscripts: Intraspecific variation in lizard heat tolerance alters estimates of climate impact / Journal of Animal Ecology (doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.12914) and Heat tolerance is more variable than cold tolerance across species of Iberian lizards after controlling for intraspecific variation / Functional Ecology (in press). Versions of dataset: the first version of the dataset contained CTmax data alone (Journal of Animal Ecology), species names, population codes, locality names (with region, country, lat/long), the second version of the dataset (Functional Ecology) contains the latter information along with CTmin and body-weight data while the locality names and lat/long have been refined., The widespread observation that heat tolerance is less variable than cold tolerance (‘cold-tolerance asymmetry’) leads to the prediction that species exposed to temperatures near their thermal maxima should have reduced evolutionary potential for adapting to climate warming. However, the prediction is largely supported by species-level global studies based on single estimates of both physiological metrics per taxon. We ask if cold-tolerance asymmetry holds for Iberian lizards after accounting for intraspecific variation in critical thermal maxima (CTmax) and minima (CTmin). To do so, we quantified CTmax and CTmin for 58 populations of 15 Iberian lizard species (299 individuals). Then, we randomly selected one population from each study species (population sample = 15 CTmax and CTmin values), tested for variance homoscedasticity across species, and repeated the test for thousands of population samples as if we had undertaken the same study thousands of times, each time sampling one different population per species. The ratio of variances in CTmax to CTmin across species varied up to 16-fold depending on the populations chosen. Variance ratios show how much CTmax departs from the cross-species mean compared to CTmin, with a unitary ratio indicating equal variance of both thermal limits. Sampling one population per species was six times more likely to result in the observation of greater CTmax variance (‘heat-tolerance asymmetry’) than cold-tolerance asymmetry. The null hypothesis of equal variance was twice as likely for cases of cold-tolerance asymmetry than for the opposite scenario. Range-wide, population-level studies that quantify heat and cold tolerance of individual species are urgently needed to ascertain the global prevalence of cold-tolerance asymmetry. While broad latitudinal clines of cold tolerance have been strongly supported, heat tolerance might respond to smaller-scale climatic and habitat factors hence go unnoticed in global studies. Studies investigating physiological responses to climate change should incorporate the extent to which thermal traits are characteristic of individuals, populations and/or species., British Ecological Society, Award: 4496-5470. European Union, Award: IC&DT 1/SAESCTN/ALENT-07-0224-FEDER-001755. Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Award: CGL2011-26852., Peer reviewed

Mantellid frogs present an extensive adaptive radiation endemic to Madagascar and Comoros, being the subfamily Mantellinae the most morphologically and ecologically diverse. The Mantellinae present key innovative evolutionary traits linked to their unique reproductive behavior, including the presence of femoral glands and a derived vomeronasal organ. In addition, previous studies pointed to size differentiation in playing an important role in species’ dispersal capacities and shaping of their geographic ranges. Despite the high phenotypic variation observed in this clade, to date an exhaustive morphological analysis of their anatomy has still not been performed, much less in relation to internal structures. Here, we present a comprehensive skeletal description of a mantellid species, Blommersia transmarina, from the island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, which has potentially undergone a process of moderate gigantism compared to other Blommersia species. We describe its intraspecific skeletal variation utilizing non-destructive volume renderings from μCT-scans, and characterize the presence of sexual dimorphism and size covariation in skeletal structures. Notably, we found numerous signs of hyperossification, a novel structure for mantellids: the clavicular process, and the presence of several appendicular sesamoids. Our findings suggest that skeletal phenotypic variation in this genus may be linked to biomechanical function for reproduction and locomotion., Peer reviewed

Peer reviewed

BiodivERsA2012-74 FP7, Peer reviewed