Premium
NATURAL SELECTION ON MORPHOLOGICAL PHENOTYPES OF THE LIZARD UTA STANSBURIANA
Author(s) -
Fox Stanley F.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1975.tb00818.x
Subject(s) - natural selection , selection (genetic algorithm) , citation , biology , library science , computer science , artificial intelligence
Reptiles can be used to demonstrate natural selection because characteristics of their scales can be easily and objectively quantified. Since scale patterns and numbers are, in general, unique to each species within a reptilian community, they are thought to be genetically determined. Variation of scale characters, therefore, presumably reflects genetic variation (but see also Fox et al., 1961). Comparison of character distributions in adults and juveniles usually reveals that juveniles are more variable (Dunn, 1915; Inger, 1943; Mertens, 1947; Hecht, 1952). It is assumed that the phenotypic extremes present in the juvenile population suffer selective mortality and are thus absent from the adult population. This assumption requires the distribution of phenotypes in the adult population when it was juvenile to be the same as the juvenile population in the comparison. Unfortunately, no studies have yet been done on reptiles which directly document the selective mortality of particular phenotypes (as in birds, Bumpus, 1899), nor have juveniles of various phenotypes been followed over their development to observe natural selection directly. This study quantifies natural selection acting through differential survivorship of juveniles of the desert side-blotched lizard, Uta stansburiana stejnegeri. Morphological data were gathered for a "vertical" comparison (Deevey, 1947) from adults and juveniles collected simultaneously, and for a "horizontal" comparison from a juvenile cohort monitored over time. I hypothesized