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The metabolic cost of turning right side up in the Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca)
Armoured, rigid bodied animals, such as Testudines, must self-right should they find themselves in an inverted position. The ability to self-right is an essential biomechanical and physiological process that influences survival and ultimately fitness. Traits that enhance righting ability may consequ...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8748805/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35013453 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04273-w |
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author | Ewart, Heather E. Tickle, Peter G. Sellers, William I. Lambertz, Markus Crossley, Dane A. Codd, Jonathan R. |
author_facet | Ewart, Heather E. Tickle, Peter G. Sellers, William I. Lambertz, Markus Crossley, Dane A. Codd, Jonathan R. |
author_sort | Ewart, Heather E. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Armoured, rigid bodied animals, such as Testudines, must self-right should they find themselves in an inverted position. The ability to self-right is an essential biomechanical and physiological process that influences survival and ultimately fitness. Traits that enhance righting ability may consequently offer an evolutionary advantage. However, the energetic requirements of self-righting are unknown. Using respirometry and kinematic video analysis, we examined the metabolic cost of self-righting in the terrestrial Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise and compared this to the metabolic cost of locomotion at a moderate, easily sustainable speed. We found that self-righting is, relatively, metabolically expensive and costs around two times the mass-specific power required to walk. Rapid movements of the limbs and head facilitate successful righting however, combined with the constraints of breathing whilst upside down, contribute a significant metabolic cost. Consequently, in the wild, these animals should favour environments or behaviours where the risk of becoming inverted is reduced. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8748805 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-87488052022-01-11 The metabolic cost of turning right side up in the Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca) Ewart, Heather E. Tickle, Peter G. Sellers, William I. Lambertz, Markus Crossley, Dane A. Codd, Jonathan R. Sci Rep Article Armoured, rigid bodied animals, such as Testudines, must self-right should they find themselves in an inverted position. The ability to self-right is an essential biomechanical and physiological process that influences survival and ultimately fitness. Traits that enhance righting ability may consequently offer an evolutionary advantage. However, the energetic requirements of self-righting are unknown. Using respirometry and kinematic video analysis, we examined the metabolic cost of self-righting in the terrestrial Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise and compared this to the metabolic cost of locomotion at a moderate, easily sustainable speed. We found that self-righting is, relatively, metabolically expensive and costs around two times the mass-specific power required to walk. Rapid movements of the limbs and head facilitate successful righting however, combined with the constraints of breathing whilst upside down, contribute a significant metabolic cost. Consequently, in the wild, these animals should favour environments or behaviours where the risk of becoming inverted is reduced. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-01-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8748805/ /pubmed/35013453 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04273-w Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Ewart, Heather E. Tickle, Peter G. Sellers, William I. Lambertz, Markus Crossley, Dane A. Codd, Jonathan R. The metabolic cost of turning right side up in the Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca) |
title | The metabolic cost of turning right side up in the Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca) |
title_full | The metabolic cost of turning right side up in the Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca) |
title_fullStr | The metabolic cost of turning right side up in the Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca) |
title_full_unstemmed | The metabolic cost of turning right side up in the Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca) |
title_short | The metabolic cost of turning right side up in the Mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca) |
title_sort | metabolic cost of turning right side up in the mediterranean spur-thighed tortoise (testudo graeca) |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8748805/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35013453 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-04273-w |
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