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Full-Text Articles in Animal Sciences
Using Body Condition Index Can Be An Unreliable Indicator Of Fitness: A Case Of Sand Lizard Lacerta Agilis Linnaeus, 1758 (Sauria: Lacertidae), Krzysztof Dudek, Zofia Sajkowska, Monika Gawalek, Anna Ekner-Grzyb
Using Body Condition Index Can Be An Unreliable Indicator Of Fitness: A Case Of Sand Lizard Lacerta Agilis Linnaeus, 1758 (Sauria: Lacertidae), Krzysztof Dudek, Zofia Sajkowska, Monika Gawalek, Anna Ekner-Grzyb
Turkish Journal of Zoology
In ecological and morphological studies, researchers often use body condition index as a measure of an individual's fitness. Our research shows that body condition index may be an unreliable method for this purpose, because changes in lizards' body proportions are not stable during their lifetime. Results obtained from a Polish population of the sand lizard (Lacerta agilis) show that the body length increases faster than the body mass, meaning that the correlation between these 2 parameters is not linear. Herpetologists frequently use the body condition index to compare the fitness of lizards of different ages. Our study demonstrates that this …
Allometry Of Head Size And Shape Dimorphism In The Grass Snake (Natrix Natrix L.), Bartosz Borczyk
Allometry Of Head Size And Shape Dimorphism In The Grass Snake (Natrix Natrix L.), Bartosz Borczyk
Turkish Journal of Zoology
This study was conducted to investigate allometry of head growth patterns in the grass snake (Natrix natrix (Linnaeus, 1758)). Although male and female grass snakes differ in relative head size, their head growth patterns follow similar trajectories. The sexual differences are roughly constant during ontogeny. Most head dimensions grow with negative allometry or isometry with respect to the snout?vent length except head width, which grows with positive allometry in both sexes.