A new tale of lost tails: Correlates of tail breakage in the worm lizard Amphisbaena vermicularis.

ABSTRACT: Predator-prey interactions are important evolutionary drivers of defensive behaviors, but they are usually difficult to record. This lack of data on natural history and ecological interactions of species can be overcome through museum specimens, at least for some reptiles. When facing aggressive interactions, reptile species may exhibit the defensive behavior of autotomy by losing the tail, which is also known as "urotomy". The inspection of preserved specimens for scars of tail breakage can reveal possible ecological and biological correlates of urotomy. Herein, we investigated how the probability of urotomy in the worm lizard Amphisbaena vermicularis is affected by sex, body size, temperature, and precipitation. We found higher chances of urotomy for specimens with larger body siz

SUBMITTER: Guedes JJM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7771140 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature