We incubated eggs of the Chinese three-keeled pond turtle (Chinemys reevesii) at 4 constant temperatures to assess the influence of these thermal regimes on incubation length, hatching success, and phenotypic traits of hatchlings. Eggs incubated at 24° and 27°C produced larger hatchlings in body mass, carapace size, and limb length than did those from 30° and 33°C. Hatchlings from 27° and 30°C crawled and swam faster than did their counterparts from 24° and 33°C. The critical thermal minima of hatchlings incubated at 30° and 33°C were higher than those of hatchlings from 24° and 27°C.
How to translate text using browser tools
1 December 2006
The Influence of Incubation Temperature on Morphology, Locomotor Performance, and Cold Tolerance of Hatchling Chinese Three-Keeled Pond Turtles, Chinemys reevesii
Wei-Guo Du,
Rong-Quan Zheng,
Lin Shu
ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE
Chelonian Conservation and Biology
Vol. 5 • No. 2
December 2006
Vol. 5 • No. 2
December 2006