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Can Reptile Embryos Influence Their Own Rates of Heating and Cooling?

Previous investigations have assumed that embryos lack the capacity of physiological thermoregulation until they are large enough for their own metabolic heat production to influence nest temperatures. Contrary to intuition, reptile embryos may be capable of physiological thermoregulation. In our ex...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Du, Wei-Guo, Tu, Ming-Chung, Radder, Rajkumar S., Shine, Richard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3691125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23826200
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067095
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author Du, Wei-Guo
Tu, Ming-Chung
Radder, Rajkumar S.
Shine, Richard
author_facet Du, Wei-Guo
Tu, Ming-Chung
Radder, Rajkumar S.
Shine, Richard
author_sort Du, Wei-Guo
collection PubMed
description Previous investigations have assumed that embryos lack the capacity of physiological thermoregulation until they are large enough for their own metabolic heat production to influence nest temperatures. Contrary to intuition, reptile embryos may be capable of physiological thermoregulation. In our experiments, egg-sized objects (dead or infertile eggs, water-filled balloons, glass jars) cooled down more rapidly than they heated up, whereas live snake eggs heated more rapidly than they cooled. In a nest with diel thermal fluctuations, that hysteresis could increase the embryo’s effective incubation temperature. The mechanisms for controlling rates of thermal exchange are unclear, but may involve facultative adjustment of blood flow. Heart rates of snake embryos were higher during cooling than during heating, the opposite pattern to that seen in adult reptiles. Our data challenge the view of reptile eggs as thermally passive, and suggest that embryos of reptile species with large eggs can influence their own rates of heating and cooling.
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spelling pubmed-36911252013-07-03 Can Reptile Embryos Influence Their Own Rates of Heating and Cooling? Du, Wei-Guo Tu, Ming-Chung Radder, Rajkumar S. Shine, Richard PLoS One Research Article Previous investigations have assumed that embryos lack the capacity of physiological thermoregulation until they are large enough for their own metabolic heat production to influence nest temperatures. Contrary to intuition, reptile embryos may be capable of physiological thermoregulation. In our experiments, egg-sized objects (dead or infertile eggs, water-filled balloons, glass jars) cooled down more rapidly than they heated up, whereas live snake eggs heated more rapidly than they cooled. In a nest with diel thermal fluctuations, that hysteresis could increase the embryo’s effective incubation temperature. The mechanisms for controlling rates of thermal exchange are unclear, but may involve facultative adjustment of blood flow. Heart rates of snake embryos were higher during cooling than during heating, the opposite pattern to that seen in adult reptiles. Our data challenge the view of reptile eggs as thermally passive, and suggest that embryos of reptile species with large eggs can influence their own rates of heating and cooling. Public Library of Science 2013-06-24 /pmc/articles/PMC3691125/ /pubmed/23826200 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067095 Text en © 2013 Du et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Du, Wei-Guo
Tu, Ming-Chung
Radder, Rajkumar S.
Shine, Richard
Can Reptile Embryos Influence Their Own Rates of Heating and Cooling?
title Can Reptile Embryos Influence Their Own Rates of Heating and Cooling?
title_full Can Reptile Embryos Influence Their Own Rates of Heating and Cooling?
title_fullStr Can Reptile Embryos Influence Their Own Rates of Heating and Cooling?
title_full_unstemmed Can Reptile Embryos Influence Their Own Rates of Heating and Cooling?
title_short Can Reptile Embryos Influence Their Own Rates of Heating and Cooling?
title_sort can reptile embryos influence their own rates of heating and cooling?
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3691125/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23826200
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067095
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