Meeting Abstract

57.3  Thursday, Jan. 6  The evolution of locomotor capabilities in lizards SCALES, Jeffrey A; University of Hawaii, Manoa jscales@hawaii.edu

Locomotor performance is often considered to be intimately linked with fitness in many organisms. However, the locomotor system of most organisms must perform multiple, often contrasting tasks such high speed running and activities requiring high endurance. Thus, multiple selective pressures are likely acting on the locomotor system simultaneously. Few studies have examined which, and how many selective pressures are responsible for the variety of locomotor capabilities within an organism. Here, lizards are used as a model to test which selective pressures act on their locomotor system resulting in different locomotor capabilities. Acceleration, sprint speed and maximal exertion were measured in twenty-two species of lizards. Whether these different locomotor capabilities are adaptive for the behavior and/or habitat of these lizard species was explicitly tested using evolutionary models based on predator escape behavior, foraging behavior, and habitat use. The results show that different selective pressures act on the locomotor systems of lizards suggesting that different locomotor capabilities are adaptive for different behaviors.