The sex determination pattern in crocodilians: a systematic review after three decades of research

1. Sex in crocodilians is not determined by chromosomes, but by egg incubation temperature, where different temperatures produce different clutch sex ratios. Two patterns have been proposed to describe these changes in sex ratios: a 100% female proportion at low and high temperatures with male predominance at intermediate ones (FMF) or a simpler pattern with a single female to male transition (FM). Over the last three decades, researchers have provided empirical information to support either of these two patterns in different species; however, no consensus has been reached partly because data has not been analyzed as a whole. 2. Here, we aimed at gathering the existing data on these patterns to provide models of temperature-driven sex-determination in those crocodilians studied so far. 3. A preliminary literature search allowed us to integrate a glossary of terms related with the phenomenon under study. With this, we created search queries that were entered into Web of Knowledge, Scopus...