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(*
/)
E t a
o,
c
o
J
h = (*(-dK')
hatching CV(maturation)
Age (x)
Frc. l.-Growth in length accordingto the von Bertalanffy equation. Age (x) is measured
from a hypothetical zero length, even though the equation is usually fitted beginning at
hatching. The symbol /- representsthe asymptotic size, which for other indeterminategrow-
ers has been shown to be about 5Valargerthan the maximum-sizedindividual seenin a large
sample (Taylor 1962;Pauly 1981).The symbol /" representsthe length at maturation, age o;
thus, /"//- is the relative size at the onset ofmaturity (Charnov 1990&).Body massis usually
a power function oflength, with the exponentapproximately3.0 (Ricker 1975;Pauly 1981).
or the Clupeidae).The two patterns are as follows. First, within each taxonomic
group the adult instantaneousmortality rute (M) and the von Bertalanffy growth
coefficient (K) are positively related to each other such that the ratio K/M tends
to be relatively constant. However, this KIM ratio may differ greatly among
groups. The second pattern is that the body length at maturity (/") is positively
correlated with the von Bertalanffy asymptotic body length (/-), so that the rela-
tive length at maturity (/.//-) tends to be a constant value within a group, and this
value tends to increase as the group's KIM ratio increases.It was later pointed
out that a third pattern holds if the two just mentioned are true (Charnov and
Berrigan 1991a,l99lb). From the von Bertalanffy equation of figure l, we have
l.ll*:l-e-K" (1)
where a is the age at sexual maturity. If a group of species share a common
Ql- value, they must share a common K'ct value; but if their KIM ratio is also
constant,then the product M.otwill itself be a constant.Thus, specieswith the
sameKIM and l.ll* ratios will have adult instantaneousmortality rates that are
inversely proportional to the ages at maturity. It was shown that for a wide
variety of fishes M.a falls between 1 and 3 with an average near 2. A plot of
log"M versus log"ctwas linear with the expected slope of - I (Charnov and Berri-
gan l99la, l99lb).
Studies patterned on the work of Beverton and Holt showed that the same
REPTILE LIFE HISTORY 1259
METHODS
PuslrsHro Dlu oN Acp lt Mlrunrrv, MnlN ANNult Aout-t Sunvrvlr Rlrr, lNo FErulrE
Slour-VrNr LpNcrH lr MlruurroN AND AT Mexruuu Srze rN SNlres llto Lrzlnls
AGE AT ADULT At
Mlrup.rrv Sunvrvlr At Maximum
(yr) RlrB Maturity Size
Snakes:
Ag kistrodon contortrix f .7 420 750
Crotalus viridrs (Utah) 3 .75 564 693
Crotalus viridis (British Columbia) 7 .85 650 950
Vipera berus J .77 450 570
Vipera aspis 5 .78 463 540
Elaphe quadrivirgata 2 .6 549 941
Pituophis melanoleucus J .8 740 I,030
Masticophis taeniatus J .8 740 l,030
Coluber constrictor J .71 580 980
Opheodrysaestivus .49 350 550
Diadophis punctatus J .74 235 340
Carphophis vermis J .65 250 290
Nerodia sipedon 2 .35 470 970
Thamnophissirtalis 2 .5 504 815
Rhabdophis tigrinus 2 .41 548 861
Heterodon nasicus 2 .63 350 700
Heterodon platyrhinos 2 .47 560 725
Lizards:
Talcydromus talcydromoide s I .24 45 62
Lacerta vivipara 1.5 .2 49 55
Cnemidophorussexlineatus 2 .16 68 88
Cnemidophorus tigris 1.84 .48 70 90
Cnemidophorusuniparens .83 .08 58 77
Xantusia vigilis 3 .71 39 50
Basiliscus basiliscus 1.67 .JJ 135 194
Cyclura carinata 6.5 .9 t92 292
Crotaphytus collaris .83 .48 78 lt2
Crotaphytus wislizeni 1.83 .5 r03 135
Uta stansburiana .79 .t2 4l 52
Urosarus ornatus .83 .3 4l 53
Sceloporuspoinsetti 1.38 .43 87 128
Sceloporusjarrovi .65 .36 73 90
Sceloporus undulatus (Kansas) I .27 47 67
Sceloporusundulatus (New Mexico) I .34 53 73
Scelop or us undulat us (U tah) 2 .48 60 80
Sceloporus undulatus (Colorado) 1.7 .37 58 80
Sceloporusundulatus (Texas) I .tl 47 67
Scelop or us undulatus (Ohio) 1.7 .44 66 82
Sceloporusundulatus (South Carolina) I .49 )) 7l
Sceloporusundulatus (New Mexico) I .2 54 77
Sceloporusundulatus (Arizona) .9 .13 60 69
Sceloporusscalaris .74 .J 4l 63
Sceloporusvirgatus 1.83 47 65
Scelop orus gr acio sus (U tah) 1.83 48.6 67
Sceloporus gracio sus (Utah) 1.95 .47 53 70
Phrynosoma douglasi 2 .67 60 94
Norn.-These data were used to calculate the results described in the text and are derived from
articles listed in the reviews of Parker and Plummer (1987)for sriakesand Andrews (1982),Dunham
et al. (1988),and Shine and Schwarzkopf (l99l) for lizards.
REPTILE LIFE HISTORY t26l
RESULTS
(t, a
L
6
o
o
.=
L
f
(5
o @&Do
> 1.75 o
b
E 1.5
fr r.zs OC o
6 .7s o( tob .
O E
o)
: { .
- -o- io ri'rr-o-
Jo - . zos . l o
: a
-.5
- 2.5 - 2 - 1 . 5 - 1 -.5 0 .5 1
loge M
Frc. 2.-a, Relationshipbetween annual adult survival rate and age at female maturation
for 17 populations of snakes (16 species)and 28 populations of lizards (20 species).Softd
circles, data points for lizards; open circles, data points for snakes.D, Regressionsoflog"M
(instantaneousadult mortality rate) againstlog,c (ageat maturity, in years), for snakes(open
circles) andltzards (solid circles). See text for statistical results and methods of calculation.
o
.E 12
E
f
l o
o-
g 8
F A
o o
3 4
tr
- 2
z
0
.4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9
h/k
1200
E b
5 1000 o o o
E
o) 800
c o",/g
o
600
J
E s
f
400
'iE
(U 200
0
0 200 400 600 800
Lengthat M atur ity( m m )
Ftc. 3.-a, Ratios of l"ll. (relative body length at onset of maturity) for snakes(shaded
bars) and lizards (clear bars), The snakes show a greater variation and a significantly lower
mean. Seetext for statistical results. D, Size at maturity (D vs. asymptotic (maximum) size
(/*) for snakes(open circles) and lizards (solid circles).
18
(t,
c 1
.9 14
C'
E 12
o
o 10
o-
o I
L
o 6
o 4
E
f
z 2
1.5
K/M
b
2.5
2
a O
Y 1.5 i . a
o a
1
aa o
o
.5
ao
a o
0 .5 1.5 2.5
M
Ftc. 4.-a, Calculated ratios of KIM for snakes(shaded bars) and lizards (clear bars).
b, The von Bertalanffy growth constant (K) vs. instantaneousadult mortality rate (M) for
snakes(open circles) and lizards (solid circles).
graph ofK versus M for lizards and snakes,confirming a strong positive correla-
tion betweenthesetwo variables(r : 0.71, n : 45,P < .001).Nonetheless,an
ANCOVA revealed a difference in this relationship between snakesand lizards
(for slopes,F : 1.10,df : 1,41,P : .30;for intercepts,F : 6.61,df : 1,42,
P < .02). This difference is not an artifact of the greater range of M values in
lizards than in snakes (fig. 4b), because the difference persisted when analysis
was restricted to the range of M values seen in snakes(intercepts, F : 4.97, df
:1,42,P<'04).
The highly significant positive relationship between the growth constant and
adult survivalrate is not significantly different from a proportional one (K : 0'04
+ 0.95 M). Figure 4a supports the notion that KIM is approximately I for lizards
1266 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST
and snakes.This is very similar to values of this ratio determined for some other
types of animals in which growth continues after maturation. For example, KIM
ratios of sea urchins average close to 1.05 (Ebert 1975), and of fishes, around
0.95 (basedon 35 speciesin table 1 of Beverton and Holt 1959).In contrast,
pandalid shrimp have KIM ratios averaging less than 0.5 (Charnov 1979, t986).
A phylogenetic analysis of the squamatedata (Pageland Harvey 1989)showed
that the correlation between the growth constant and the adult mortality rate
is not an artifact of phylogenetic conservatism, because concurrent phyloge-
netic shifts in the two variables were also highly correlated (r : 0.63, n : 25,
P < .001).
DISCUSSION
1976: Charlesworth 1980; Stearns and Crandall 1981). However, the empirical
pattern of the two being inversely proportional (o proportional to 1/M) within
many taxa, when combined with the observed relative constancy of KIM and
loll-, may put sometight constraints on the form of evolutionary theory necessary
to explain the data. Despite the allometry rather than constancy of l,ll* in reptiles,
the consequentrange in loll* values due to variations in adult body size is rela-
tively small and should not greatly affect the overall form of relationships among
these variables. Some of these issues are developed in the Appendix (and see
Charnov 1990a;Charnov and Berrigan I99Ia)'
The answer to the question posed at the beginning of this article is thus a
qualified "yes": the squamatereptiles show interspecific and intraspecific pat-
terns of growth, survival rate, and maturation that are of the same qualitative
form as seen in other organisms in which gfowth continues after maturity. In
many cases,quantitative agreementis also good. These generalkinds of patterns
are the kinds of phenomenathat life-history evolution theory should aim to ex-
plain (Charnov 1986;Charnov and Berrigan l99lb).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the many fieldworkers who gatheredthe data on which our analyses
rely and regret that many of their original articles could not be cited becauseof
space constraints. We also thank L. Schwarzkopf for bibliographic work and
D. Berrigan for statistical analysis. Valuable comments on the manuscript were
provided by D. Armstrong, R. Ballinger, R. Huey, D. Reznick, and L. J. Vitt.
The work was supported financially by the Australian Researchcouncil.
APPENDIX
Lme-HIsronv Tneonv FoRTHEBnvenroN/Hor-r P^llrnnrlts
This appendix is an overview of the phenomenologicallife-history model of evolution
(developedin Charnov and Berrigan l99la). Models in evolutionary genetics show that
the exp-c6d number of offspring produced over an individual's total life spanis a measure
of Darwinian f,tness in a nongrowing population (Charnov 1986, 19904).Consider a new-
born female and define /, as the probability that she is alive at agex, and b, as her birthrate,
in daughters, at agex.'.Her lifetime production of daughters is Ro : iil,b'd1.. We can
rewritJRo as Ro :1"111- t,bdx)ll,);the term in brackets is the averagenumber of daughters
"Fisherian reproductive value" (Fisher 1930)of
born ovei a fematet aOultiife span, the
a female at age ct (just mature), and will therefore be labeled V(a). We thus have
Ro : /o' V(a). (At)
To allow for the possibility that mortality decreasesover the immature period, a common
feature of life tables, write /o as
Io: g-liM{x)dx '
where M(.r) may decreasewith ;r. Elaboration of a suggestionby Roff (1984' 1986)led to
the proposal
-at (iharnov 1989, 1990a)that V(a) could often be represented as V(ct) c l!
-
(lenith age a to the power D). We also assumevon Bertalanffy growth (1, : /-[1
;-r':1; and tiat /- and K are inversely related as /- : A'K-h (with h < l).
1268 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST
Putting
theabove-t
T::':1*:l-t';:"-ro(r - e-K.a)s. (2)
Natural selection acts on this model life history through the choice of a and K. Evolu-
tionary equilibrium occurs when (d log"Ro)/dct: 0 and (a log"RJ/dK : 0 at the sametime.
Theseoperationson equation (A2) produce the following results; in what follows, M refers
to M(a), the adult instantaneousmortality rate, assumedto be constant over the adult life
span (i.e,, it stops decreasingqt age ct), and R refers to the relative length at the age of
maturity (R : l,ll- = | - "-x'a1.
and
fatoe"n,_ nl
-l -M :
^{ R (A4)
L do l-R'
Thesetwo equations,as functions ofthe two shapecoefficients 6 and i, thus fix the value
of two dimensionlessnumbers, KIM and /"//- (which equalsR). Three implications of these
equationsare noteworthy.
First, equation (A3) has the following meaning: y'rmust be ( l, and for a given h there
is only one R ratio that satisflesthe equation. Second,equation (A4) shows that, for given
R and 6 values, there is only one KIM ratio allowed; thus, all species with the same ft
and 6 values are predicted to have the sameKIM ratio. Third, if we rewrite - log"(l - R)
as K'a and substitute it into equation (A3), we can combine this with equation (A4) to
show that M'a : 6'ft,' the adult instantaneousmortality rate is inversely proportional to
the age at maturity. with the proportionalityconstantequal to D.ft.
This model is discussedin much greater detail in another article (Charnov and Berrigan
l99la), where a qualitative test ofthe prediction in equation 3 for several fish speciescan
be found.
LITERATURE CITED