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Correlating diet and digestive tract specialization: Examples from the lizard family Liolaemidae by Shannon P. O’Grady; Mariana Morando; Luciano Avila; M. Denise Dearing is a Environmental Science article available to read on EtoBox.

What is Correlating diet and digestive tract specialization: Examples from the lizard family Liolaemidae about?

A range of digestive tract specializations were compared among dietary categories in the family Liolaemidae to test the hypothesis that herbivores require greater gut complexity to process plant matter. Additionally, the hypothesis that herbivory favors the evolution of larger body size was tested. Lastly, the association between diet and hindgut nematodes was explored. Herbivorous liolaemids were larger relative to omnivorous and insectivorous congeners and consequently had larger guts. In addition, small intestine length of herbivorous liolaemids was disproportionately longer than that of congeners. Significant interaction effects between diet and body size among organ dimensions indicate that increases in organ size occur to a greater extent in herbivores than other diet categories. For species with plant matter in their guts, there was a significant positive correlation between the percentage of plant matter consumed and small intestine length. Herbivorous liolaemids examined in this study lacked the gross morphological specializations (cecum and colonic valves) found in herbivores in the families Iguanidae and Agamidae. A significantly greater percentage of herbivorous species

Who reads Correlating diet and digestive tract specialization: Examples from the lizard family Liolaemidae?

Author

Shannon P. O’Grady; Mariana Morando; Luciano Avila; M. Denise Dearing

Publisher

Elsevier Science; Elsevier ; Urban & Fischer Verlag; Elsevier BV (ISSN 0944-2006)

Published

2005

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)