Meeting Abstract

19.1  Monday, Jan. 4  Whole animal performances vary with body temperature and ecological function in a lizard ANDERSON, R.A.; Western Washington University Roger.Anderson@wwu.edu

Whole animal performance is expected to vary with body temperature in ectotherms, but patterns of performance of a task with body temperature may depend on the body temperatures at which the task is ecologically relevant. The northern alligator lizard, Elgaria coerulea, was used to test the relationship between body temperature and performance in three performance measures that were expected to vary differently with body temperature: sprint speed, bite speed, and bite force. Mean field active body temperatures and body temperatures chosen by lizards in a thermal gradient were approximately 28^oC. Lizards were found at a very broad range of body temperatures and were willing to eat over a range of body temperatures, hence the lizards were considered to be relatively eurythermic. All performance measures were strongly correlated to body temperature, but the patterns and peaks of performance temperatures differed among the three performance measures, in accordance to specific predictions of performance associated with antipredation and food acquisition.