Meeting Abstract

75.6  Friday, Jan. 7  Synchronous Hatching: Mechanisms and Evolution SPENCER, R-J*; MCGLASHAN, J; COLBERT, P; JANZEN, F; University of Western Sydney, Australia; University of Western Sydney, Australia; Iowa State University; Iowa State University r.spencer@uws.edu.au

The timing of birth has enormous implcations for both immediate and future survival. In animals that produce more than one offspring, assessing environmental cues is important to synchronise birth with other siblings. Turtles often emerge from the nest as a group, but temperature differentials between the top and bottom of a nest are large, making synchronous hatching an apparent improbability. However, over the last decade, synchronous hatching has been demonstrated in several species on multiple continents and this presentation will review the mechanisms behind synchronous hatching; it’s ecological and evolutionary basis; the long-term costs; as well as provide new data on embryonic metabolic compensation and adjustments to manipulate hatching times.