Patterns of senescence are highly diverse and the underlying mechanisms are controversial. Most studies have focused on endothermic tetrapods, who usually exhibit both actuarial (e.g. the increase in mortality rate with age) and reproductive senescence. However, senescence patterns are less clear in ectothermic vertebrates since these animals exhibit undetermined growth and often increase their reproductive potential throughout their life history. We contribute to this topic by investigating the relationship between age and relative size of sexual ornaments in a urodele amphibian, the great crested newt, Triturus cristatus. We found that the relative sizes of sexual ornaments (crest height, crest area, area of the white caudal spot) were correlated with an individual's age in a population monitored in the wild. These sexual ornaments constitute honest signals reflecting male quality. Thus, the crested newt appeared to undergo negligible reproductive senescence in our population, although further experiments on reproductive success are needed to confirm this hypothesis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.