The Thermal Fitness Of Metabolic Rate And Heart Rate Of Adults And Embryos In Oviparous Lizard Phrynocephalus Przewalskii

In this dissertation, thermal fitness of metabolic rate and heart rate were investigated in adults and embryos of oviparous lizard Phrynocephalus przewalskii. We studied:(1) the influences of temperature on metabolic rates, heart rates and respiration rates of adult P. przewalskii;(2) the effects of incubation temperature on incubation duration, hatching success rate and hatchling phenotypes, as well as metabolic rates and heart rates of embryos and metabolic rates of hatchlings. The main results are summarized as follows:Resting metabolic rates and heart rates of adult P. przewalskii notably increased as the temperature increased, while respiration rates were not showed significantly different among three temperatures. Compared to females, respiration rates of males were more sensitive to temperature, which may related to the activity characteristics of male P. przewalskii.Flexible-shelled eggs of lizard P. przewalskii were incubated in different thermal environments (26℃,30℃and34℃). Temperatures significantly altered the duration of incubation:cooler temperature usually leaded to longer incubation period. Hatching success was not significant different among three temperature groups. Metabolic rates and heart rates of embryos increased as egg-incubation went on and were significantly higher in late-term incubation. Embryos respiration rates were sensitive to the incubate temperature, while embryos metabolic rates were not different among three temperature group under the same incubate period.Hatchling incubated at26℃had larger body masses, head length, head width, and longer snout-vent lengths, while hatchling incubated at34℃had longer arm length, leg length and tail length. Metabolic rates of hatchlings were much greater than embryos. Hatchlings may have lower metabolic consumption when thermal environments were constant with the incubate temperature.