Meeting Abstract
For precocious vertebrates, the need for locomotor activity begins soon after hatching or birth. Juveniles may occupy the same habitat as their adult counterparts and therefore, compete for the same resources. Consequently, juveniles must be able to perform multiple locomotor tasks at a reasonably similar level, despite their smaller size. Most animals grow allometrically, where their body proportions change as they get larger. These changes potentially impact their performance in various locomotor tasks. Scaling models have been proposed to predict the relationships between body size and performance variables, where velocity increases with a slope of one, increasing at the same rate as linear body dimensions. While these predictive models do apply in some cases under specific conditions, many empirical studies have shown that the relationship between length and velocity does not always follow the predicted trajectory and slopes may vary between multiple modes of locomotion. Therefore, if a performance variable does not scale as predicted, what are the potential reasons for this deviation? Locomotion can be explained intrinsically by not only the length of body parts, but also cross sectional surface area of muscle fiber types and muscle force generation, all of which scale with different predicted values. This study aims to address (1) if running, jumping, swimming, and climbing performance in brown basilisks, Basiliscus vittatus, meet predicted scaling models and (2) which phenotypic traits or kinematic variables best explain potential allometric relationships. Preliminary results show that climbing maximum velocity scales isometrically with body length, but running and swimming velocities scale negatively allometrically. Jumping maximum acceleration has no relationship with body length.
