Data from: Life histories and invasions: accelerated laying rate and incubation time in an invasive lizard, Anolis sagrei

Faster life histories are correlated with greater invasion success across taxa. However, comparisons of life-history traits across native and invasive ranges are rare, and thus it is unknown whether invasions lead directly to evolutionary shifts in life histories. Here we compare life history traits of three invasive populations of brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) to a representative native population. In a common garden, we measured a number of reproductive traits including egg-laying rate and incubation period. We hypothesized that invasive populations would exhibit faster reproduction because fast life histories are favoured both by the invasion itself and by shorter breeding seasons in the invasive range. Compared to native females, invasive females had shorter interlaying intervals and produced eggs that hatched more quickly. Invasive and native populations did not differ consistently in egg size, hatching success, or hatchling size. Our results indicate that life history traits have rapidly diverged during the brown anole invasion, potentially facilitating the successful establishment and expansion of the species range.

跨分类单元而言，更快的生活史与更高的入侵成功率呈正相关。然而，针对本土与入侵分布区的生活史特征开展的比较研究仍较为匮乏，因此目前尚不清楚生物入侵是否会直接导致生活史发生演化改变。本研究针对三个棕色安乐蜥（Anolis sagrei）入侵种群与一个代表性本土种群的生活史特征展开对比分析。在同质园（common garden）实验条件下，我们测定了多项繁殖相关性状，涵盖产卵速率与孵化周期。我们提出假说：入侵种群将表现出更快的繁殖速率，这是因为入侵过程本身以及入侵区域更短的繁殖季，均会对较快的生活史产生选择偏向。与本土雌性个体相比，入侵种群的雌性个体产卵间隔更短，且其所产的卵孵化速度更快。入侵种群与本土种群在卵大小、孵化成功率或幼体大小上并未表现出一致的差异。本研究结果表明，在棕色安乐蜥的入侵过程中，其生活史特征已发生快速分化，这或许有助于该物种成功定殖并扩大其分布范围。