Predicting The Fate Of A Living Fossil: How Will Global Warming Affect Sex Determination And Hatching Phenology In Tuatara?

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Article Date: 02 Jul 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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Climate warming will affect animals in many ways, including the sex of some species' offspring. For tuatara, unique and ancient reptiles from New Zealand, warmer nest temperatures produce male-biased clutches.

We predicted sex ratios and hatching times of tuatara clutches under future climate scenarios by linking egg development data with sophisticated models of soil microclimates.

Under extreme climate change only males would hatch from nests of the rarest tuatara species by the mid 2080s.

Our novel approach will help in assessing future translocation sites for tuatara, and for predicting climatic impacts on other species where sex is determined by temperature.

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.

www.publishing.royalsociety.org/proceedingsb