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Related Experiment Videos

Growth to death in lizards.

Mats Olsson1, Richard Shine

  • 1The University of Sydney, School of Biological Sciences, New South Wales, Australia. mats.olsson@zool.gu.se

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
|October 23, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Rapid early growth in lizards, even in the wild, can lead to significantly lower survival rates later in life. This challenges previous lab-based findings on growth-survival trade-offs.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Herpetology

Background:

  • Negative correlations between growth rate and survival are common, often linked to foraging risks.
  • Delayed negative effects of rapid early growth on later survival are poorly understood, with limited field evidence.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the field-based evidence of rapid early growth impacting later survival in a wild reptile population.
  • To explore the role of environmental conditions in mediating growth-survival trade-offs.

Main Methods:

  • Neonatal lizards were housed in seminatural enclosures at two elevations, manipulating thermal conditions to influence foraging and growth rates.
  • Growth rates were monitored, and individuals were later released into the wild to track survival.
  • The study controlled for elevation to isolate the effect of growth rate on mortality.

Main Results:

  • Individuals exhibiting faster neonatal growth rates experienced significantly higher mortality rates after release into the wild.
  • This delayed negative effect on survival was observed irrespective of the thermal conditions or elevation where they were initially raised.
  • The findings provide the first field-based experimental evidence for this phenomenon in reptiles.

Conclusions:

  • Rapid early growth can impose a long-term survival cost, even in natural environments.
  • This challenges interpretations of life history evolution and phenotypic plasticity, suggesting complex trade-offs beyond immediate risks.
  • The study highlights the importance of field experiments for understanding ecological and evolutionary processes.

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