Age structure in two populations of Triturus vittatus ophryticus at different altitudes

Abstract

We investigated age structure by skeletochronology in two breeding populations of Triturus vittatus ophryticus inhabiting altitudes ranging from 300 m (in Gurbulak) to 1300 m (in Hidirnebi) in northeastern Turkey. The mean age was 4 years (maximum 10) in Gurbulak population and 8 (maximum 16) in Hidirnebi population. In the lowland population, minimum age at maturation was two to three years while it was four years in the highland population. The mean snout-vent length of the populations was significantly different and we found no correlation between age and snout-vent length except for females of Gurbulak. Sexual dimorphism in body size and weight was detected in both populations.

Body size and age in three populations of the northern banded newt Ommatotriton ophryticus (Berthold, 1846) from Turkey

“…This situation was previously emphasized by Malmgren and Thollesson (1999). By studying another two populations of O. ophryticus from different altitudes, Kutrup et al (2005) obtained the same results. Schmidtler and Schmidtler (1967) and Olgun and Baran (1993) also determined larger body measurements for males than females in different populations.…”

“…Contrarily, Kutrup et al (2005) found no significant relation between age and SVL for high-and lowland populations of O. ophryticus. However, there is no positive relationship between age and body size in some species, or this relationship may vary depending on the sex.…”

“…The periodicity of arrested growth over the seasons, analogous to tree rings, also provides an opportunity to determine the age of individuals (Castanet and Smirina, 1990;Smirina, 1994). The skeletochronological method has been successfully used for age determination in many species of anurans (e.g., Miaud et al, 2007;Çiçek et al, 2011b, 2011cGül et al, 2011;Özdemir et al, 2012;Altunışık and Özdemir, 2013), as well as salamanders and newts (e.g., Miaud et al, 2000;Jakob et al, 2003;Olgun et al, 2005;Kutrup et al, 2005;Üzüm, 2009;Üzüm andOlgun, 2009a, 2009b;Üzüm et al, 2011).…”

Age Structure of Females in a Breeding Population of <I>Echinotriton chinhaiensis</I> (Caudata: Salamandridae) and Its Conservation Implication

“…We found that the body size of E. chinhaiensis adult females correlated with clutch size, but the correlation was absent between body size and age, which was also found in the studies of Rana sakuraii (Kusano et al, 1995), Triturus vittatus ophryticus (Kutrup et al, 2005) and Tylototriton verrucosus (Khonsue et al, 2010). In this study, we conclude that body size alone is an unreliable character to use for the determination of age in female E. chinhaiensis.…”

Age structure of Hemidactylus turcicus (L., 1758) (Sauria: Gekkonidae) from southwestern Anatolia (Muğla, Turkey)

“…Although there has been an increase in studies on the age determination of amphibians and reptiles both worldwide and in Turkey in recent years (Zug and Rand, 1987;Bülbül, 2002;Ento and Matsui, 2002;Sinsch et al, 2002;Curtin et al, 2005;Erişmiş, 2005;Kutrup et al, 2005;Pancharatna and Kumbar, 2005;Piantoni et al, 2006;Üzüm, 2006;Eden et al, 2007;Çiçek, 2009;Kolarov et al, 2010;Üstel, 2010;Parlak, 2011;Yakın, 2012;Yakın et al, 2012;Altunışık et al, 2013;Arakelyan et al, 2013;Kumaş, 2013;Ergül et al, 2014;Gül et al, 2014;Üzüm et al, 2014;Yakın and Tok, 2014), no age determination study on H. turcicus has been encountered.…”