Maternal investment and early thermal conditions affect performance and antipredator responses

Exposure to increased temperatures during early development can lead to phenotypic plasticity in morphology, physiology, and behaviour across a range of ectothermic animals. In addition, maternal effects are known to be important contributors to phenotypic variation in offspring. Whether the two factors interact to shape offspring morphology and behaviour has been barely explored. This is critical since climate change is expected to impact both incubation temperature and maternal resource allocation and stress levels. Using a fully factorial design, and Bayesian multivariate mixed models, we explored how the manipulation of early thermal environment and yolk-quantity in eggs affected the morphology, performance and antipredator behaviour of two sympatric Australian skink species (Lampropholis delicata and L. guichenoti). We found that juveniles from the hot treatment were larger than those on the cold treatment in L. guichenoti but not L. delicata. Using repeated behavioural measures fo..., Data were collected experimentally, after exposure of lizard eggs to different incubation regimes based on temperature and maternal investment., , # Maternal investment and early thermal conditions affect performance and antipredator responses

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vmcvdnd1c](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.vmcvdnd1c)

## Description of the data and file structure

The data is split into two sheets, one for morphology (one measure for each individual) and a second one for performance and antipredatory behaviour (three measures for each individual). 

#### Data shared between both sheets:

* Id: A random identity number is given to each individual.
* Clutch_id: identity number provided to the clutch the animal hatched from.
* Temperature: incubation temperature (cold = 23 °C and hot = 38 °C).
* Maternal treatment refers to the yolk treatment (ablated = yolk reduced treatment, control = not yolk reduced).
* Sp: each of the two species studied.
* SVL (mm): snout-vent length of the animals the day before performing the first performance trial.
* Age (days): days elapsed from the hatching day to the first performa...