Laboratory endurance capacity predicts variation in field locomotor behaviour among lizard species

I measured locomotor endurance capacities of lizards on a motorized treadmill in the laboratory and compared average values for different species with quantitative measures of their movement in the field (percentage of time moving, N=15 species; moves/min, N=13; daily movement distance, N=11). I hypothesized that endurance would be positively related to all three movement indices. Relationships between log endurance and log movement were computed as conventional Pearson product-moment correlations and as the equivalent with phylogenetically independent contrasts. Endurance was significantly positively related to both the percentage of time moving and the daily movement distance. This is the first study to demonstrate such relationships with phylogenetically based statistical methods. These results suggest that endurance capacities of lizards are coadapted with their typical locomotor behaviour. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.