Meeting Abstract
When competing for food or other resources, or when confronted with predators, young animals may be at a disadvantage relative to adults because of their smaller size. Additionally, the ongoing differentiation and growth of tissues may constrain performance during early ontogenetic stages. However, juveniles must feed before they can become reproductively active adults and as such the adult phenotype may be the result of an ontogenetic filter through selection on juvenile phenotype and performance. Here I present ontogenetic data on head morphology and bite force for different lizard species. I test whether adults reflect selection on juveniles by comparing slopes of growth trajectories before and after sexual maturity in males and females. Next, I test whether phylogenetic history drives the observed patterns by comparing ontogenetic trajectories both within and between two clades: lacertids and Anolis lizards for both sexes. Next, I test whether dietary specialization has an impact on the ontogenetic trajectory of head morphology and bite force by including data on dietary specialists. Finally, I compare the data for lizards to data on other vertebrates and discuss the generality of the observed patterns.
