Meeting Abstract

P3.134  Tuesday, Jan. 6  Implications of tradeoffs between crypsis and thermoregulation for the evolution of animal coloration BOCKOVEN, A.*; AMARELLO, M.; SEARS, M.W.; Southern Illinois University; Southern Illinois University; Southern Illinois University bockoven@siu.edu

Patterns of covariation between the coloration of animals and their environments are some of the most striking examples of adaptation in nature. For ectotherms, such patterns likely result from a tradeoff between thermoregulation and crypsis. That is, coloration will influence both the amount of radiation that is absorbed by an individual from the environment as well as determine how conspicuous an individual appears in its environment. An evolutionary tradeoff may when occur when coloration that is optimal for thermoregulation causes an individual to be more easily detected by predators. One system that shows striking patterns of color matching between individuals and their environment is the lizard community of the Tularosa Basin in New Mexico, USA. Coloration of lizards ranges from melanistic in the Carrizozo lava field to blanched in the White Sands dune system. Here, using biophysical models that incorporate morphological and spectral traits of lizards along with the physical characteristics of the background environment, we examine the consequences of color matching on activity and energy budgets of lizards in this system. Further, we conduct virtual transplants to examine the consequences of patterns of animal coloration that contrast with their environment. We propose that tradeoffs between thermoregulation and predation likely have given rise to patterns of coloration for lizards in the Tularosa Basin.