To hatch and hatch not: Rejecting the hypothesis that heterochrony in vestibular mechanosensing explains poor escape-hatching success of Agalychnis spurrelli in snake attacks compared with its congener A. callidryas

Phyllomedusid treefrogs hatch prematurely to escape egg predation, but escape success varies among species. During spontaneous hatching of Agalychnis spurrelli, snake attacks elicited 55% less escape-hatching than did attacks on less developed A. callidryas. Agalychnis callidryas use their vestibular system and, secondarily, their lateral line to sense physical disturbances that cue hatching. Since A. spurrelli develop faster, we hypothesized that heterochronic shifts in the onset timing of vestibular mechanosensory function, relative to hatching ability, might explain their lower escape response to mechanosensory cues. To test this, we compared the onset timing of hypoxia- and mechanosensory-cued hatching (MCH) and vestibular mechanosensory function in developmental series of A. spurrelli and A. callidryas embryos. Across species, most sibships began responding to each cue at the same developmental stage. MCH onset in A. spurrelli was associated with vestibular function onset, as indic..., , , This README for \"Data for Guell&Warkentin.xlsx\" file was generated on 2023-12-12 by BRANDON A. GUELL

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: \"Data for Güell & Warkentin.xlsx\", for the manuscript: \"To hatch and hatch not: rejecting the hypothesis that heterochrony in vestibular mechanosensing explains poor escape-hatching success of Agalychnis spurrelli in snake attacks compared with its congener A. callidryas\" submitted to Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology - BEAS-D-23-00239.

2. Author Information
A. Principal Investigator Contact Information
Name: Brandon A. Guell
Institution: Boston University
Address: 5 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215, U.S.A.
Email:

A. Analyses Contact Information
Name: Brandon A. Guell
Institution: Boston University
Address: 5 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215, U.S.A.
Email:

3. Date of data collection (single date, range, approximate date): 22 May–14 August 2018 and 27 June–3 July 2021

4. Geographic lo...