Trade-off between larval development rate and Post-metamorphic Traits in the Frog Rana latastei |
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Authors: | Gentile Francesco Ficetola Fiorenza De Bernardi |
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Institution: | (1) Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Milano, V. Celoria 26, 20133 Milan, Italy |
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Abstract: | Development rate early in the ontogeny is believed to correlate positively with fitness. Geographic variation in intrinsic
development rate suggests the existence of trade-offs between development rate and other fitness related traits. We investigated
whether these trade-offs exist between intrinsic larval development rate and post-metamorphic traits in an organism with a
complex life cycle. In laboratory, we measured if the tadpoles of the frog Rana latastei with fast intrinsic development rate have a suboptimal post-metamorphic morphology, by comparing froglets from five populations.
Then, we evaluated the relationship between age at metamorphosis, hindlimb length and jumping performance for frogs grown
in nature in two populations. Under laboratory conditions, froglets with fast intrinsic development had shorter absolute and
shorter size-adjusted tibiofibulas. We observed a strong, positive relationship between tibiofibula length and jumping performance.
In nature, froglets from the last metamorphosing population had longer absolute and size-adjusted tibiofibulas, and were able
to jump further. The cost of fast development could be the shorter legs of early metamorphosing frogs, and their poor jumping
performance. Thus, a fast intrinsic development rate may not always be positively related to lifetime fitness, since delayed
effects of larval development persist also across life history stages.
Co-ordinating editor: V. Jormalainen |
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Keywords: | allometry complex life cycles developmental trade-offs jumping performance local adaptation locomotor performance metamorphosis optimisation |
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