Parental thermal environment alters offspring sex ratio and fitness in an oviparous lizard

The environment experienced by parents can impact the phenotype of their offspring (parental effects), a critical component of organismal ecology and evolution in variable or changing environments. Although temperature is a central feature of the environment for ectotherms, its role in parental effects has been little explored until recently. Here, parental basking opportunity was manipulated in an oviparous lizard with temperature-dependent sex determination, the jacky dragon (Amphibolurus muricatus). Eggs were incubated at a temperature that typically produces a 50:50 sex ratio, and hatchlings were reared in a standard thermal environment. Offspring of parents in short bask conditions appeared to have better fitness outcomes in captive conditions than those of parents in long bask conditions – they had greater growth and survival as a function of their mass. In addition, the sex of offspring (male or female) depended on the interaction between parental treatment and egg mass, and trea...

亲本所处的环境可对子代表型产生影响，即亲本效应（parental effects），这是可变或变化环境中生物体生态学与进化的关键组成部分。尽管温度是外温动物（ectotherms）所处环境的核心特征之一，但直到近期，其在亲本效应中的作用仍未得到充分探索。
本研究对具有温度依赖型性别决定（temperature-dependent sex determination）的卵生蜥蜴——澳洲岩龙（jacky dragon，学名Amphibolurus muricatus）的亲本晒背时长进行了操控处理。实验以常规产生50:50性比的温度对卵进行孵化，并将幼体置于标准化的热环境中饲养。
相较于长期晒背组亲本的子代，短期晒背组亲本的子代在圈养条件下展现出更优异的适合度表现：其生长速率与存活率均随体重变化呈现更优水平。此外，子代的性别（雄性或雌性）取决于亲本处理与卵重之间的交互作用，且