Meeting Abstract

67.5  Monday, Jan. 6 09:00  Maximal locomotor performance and sprint sensitivity in green anole lizards (Anolis carolinensis) HUSAK, J.F.*; SATHE, E.A.; Univ. of St. Thomas jerry.husak@stthomas.edu

Locomotion is arguably one of the most important traits to the survival and reproductive success of animals and has been the subject of intense study for decades. However, locomotion is typically studied as maximal locomotor capacities measured in a standardized laboratory setting and is assumed to be significant to fitness. It is rare for studies to consider whether the performance traits being measured are relevant to the organism in nature and representative of what is likely to be the subject of selection. Since many animals live in complex environments and must move through them in a multitude of ecological contexts, it is critical to consider locomotor performance more broadly. Sprint sensitivity, a measure of how well individuals can perform on a variety of substrates, may in some cases be more important to fitness than any one measure of performance, but we know surprisingly little about sprint sensitivity or what morphological traits predict it. We measured locomotor performance of green anole lizards (Anolis carolinensis) on several different substrate sizes that fall within their normal range of use, comparing maximal speeds among them, as well as when navigating a surface with complex obstacles. We examined how maximal sprint speed differs among substrate sizes and whether individuals exhibited tradeoffs in locomotor ability on those substrates. We measured limb size and muscle morphology to determine the best morphological predictors of maximal speed on each substrate, as well as sprint sensitivity.