Eggs and hatchlings morphometrics

Presentación del tema: "Eggs and hatchlings morphometrics"— Transcripción de la presentación:

1 Eggs and hatchlings morphometrics
Effect of nest inundation on hatching success of Caiman latirostris eggs. César Cedillo-Leal*1, Melina Simoncini2,3, Pamela Leiva 2,3, Alejandro Larriera2 and Carlos I. Piña2,3. 1Instituto de Ecología Aplicada, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, México 2Proyecto Yacaré-Laboratorio de Zoología Aplicada: Anexo Vertebrados (FHUC-UNL/MASPyMA), Santa Fe, Argentina 3CICyTTP-UADER-Prov Entre Ríos-CONICET. FCyT, Dr. Materi y España-Entre Ríos, Diamante, Argentina Introduction Results Treatment inundated with scraping eggshell. Inundation when clutch reached day 30 of development Inundation is one of the main causes of poor hatching success in crocodilians, however there is little information about the tolerance of embryos to submergence and the role that eggshell structure has on survival. Reduce hatching success Inundation when clutch reached day 60 of development Treatment inundated with and without scraping eggshell. The objective of this research was to determine the effect of inundation on hatching success of Caiman latirostris and if eggshell surface roughness influences the tolerance of embryo to inundation. Reduce hatching success Materials and Methods Inundations produced 10 nests Malformations 4 Treatments (9 eggs) Discussion We observed that the effect of inundation on hatching success is related to the moment that inundation occurred. More developed embryos (60 days) are more susceptible to inundation, because they have greater oxygen demands (Whitehead, 1987; Iungman and Piña, 2013). Scraped eggs are less tolerant to inundation, because the modification of eggshell increase water and gases exchange between embryo and environment (Ferguson, 1981, 1982; Ackerman et al., 1985; Grenard, 1991). No treatments affected hatchlings size, but we recorded a high proportion of malformations, and a reduction in hatchlings survivorship on inundated eggs. 10 eggs were inundated 30 days 60 days Eggs and hatchlings morphometrics Conclusion We conclude that eggshell roughness mitigate the damage caused by early inundation. On the other hand, late inundation tend to be fatal independently of eggshell roughness.