Predictive Factors of Chemical and Visual Sensory Organ Size: The Roles of Sex, Environment, and Evolution

Animal personality is defined as an individual's behavioural consistency across contexts, situations, and time. Understanding the evolution of animal personality requires the integration of macroevolutionary patterns with intraspecific promoters of individual behavioural consistency. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis to assess the association between lizards' animal personality and different indicators of sociability (a personality promotor) in a phylogenetic context. In lizards, the presence of both, secretory glands and viviparity have been associated with higher sociability levels. We analysed behavioural repeatability data, including 490 effect sizes from 37 species and 63 studies, considering five categories (activity, aggressivity, boldness, exploration, sociability) while controlling for phylogenetic constraints. For each species, we obtained data on the number of secretory glands and the reproductive mode (oviparous or viviparous). The results showed similar values of repeatability for species with and without glands, and an absence of correlation between the number of glands and repeatability data. However, higher repeatability was present in viviparous species than in oviparous species. When we conducted separate analyses for each behavioural type, we found two contrasting patterns for exploration and boldness. Species without glands were more exploratory, while species with glands were bolder. In general, phylogeny explained the observed patterns of repeatability, but boldness, exploration and sociability were poorly explained by evolutionary history among species. This study represents a first step in disentangling the integration among animal personality, life-history and morphology traits under a broad evolutionary context.

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Evolutionary novelty in chemical signalling is linked with chemosensory behaviour in close Liolaemus lizard species (Iguania: Liolaemidae)

Ruiz‐Monachesi,

Valdecantos,

Gamarra‐Nallar

et al. 2024

Journal of Zoology

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Evolutionary changes, associated with the gain or loss of traits, can occur in signal‐emitting and signal‐detecting organs. Related functionality generally accompanies these changes; however, in some cases there are mismatches and evolutionary innovations do not show an indication of functional advantages. Due to this, the relationship between evolutionary changes and the functionality of sensory organs remains unclear. Lizard species belonging to Liolaemus lineomaculatus section present fast evolutionary state transitions associated with the gain or loss of precloacal pores (chemical signalling glands). In this group, precloacal pores configuration includes species where only males have pores (Liolaemus attenboroughi‐ancestral state), where both sexes lack of them (L. kolengh male‐loss), and species where both sexes have pores (L. zullyae, representing a female‐gain). Here, we test the relationships between evolutionary changes of signal‐emitting glands with different chemical and visual behaviours. We conducted behavioural trials in three species belonging to the Liolaemus lineomaculatus section: L. attenboroughi, L. kolengh, and L. zullyae. We measured individuals' chemical and visual responses to different social scents and to conspecific visual stimuli. Results showed the presence of different social scents recognition ability in both male‐only and female‐gain species, whereas male‐loss species showed no behavioural differences among the chemical trials. Lizards exhibited few responses in the visual trials, although the species with pores used chemo‐sensorial sense in the visual trials, while male‐loss species showed differences in visual displays in the presence of conspecific visual stimuli. These results suggest a link between evolutionary novelties of chemical secretory glands and chemical recognition.

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Predictive Factors of Chemical and Visual Sensory Organ Size: The Roles of Sex, Environment, and Evolution

Cited by 3 publications

References 123 publications

Allometry and morphological integration shape the chemical detection system in Liolaemus lizards (Squamata, Iguania)

Allometry and morphological integration shape the chemical detection system in Liolaemus lizards (Squamata, Iguania)

Meta-analysis of behavioural research in lizards reveals that phylogeny and viviparity contribute better to animal personality than secretory glands

Evolutionary novelty in chemical signalling is linked with chemosensory behaviour in close Liolaemus lizard species (Iguania: Liolaemidae)

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