Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
ZOOLOGISCHER ANZEIGER, cilt.269, ss.48-56, 2017 (SCI-Expanded)
The viviparous urodeles Lyciasalamandra spp. are restricted to a narrow mountain range of ca. 30 km width along the southern Turkish Mediterranean coast and some adjacent Turkish and Greek islands. All species share a predominantly subterranean life-style in crevices of boulder fields, probably since their speciation about 10 million years ago. In this study we test the hypothesis that similar subterranean environmental conditions attenuates within- and among-species variation of demographic life-history features in four populations of Lyciasalamandra from three different taxa (L. atifi, L. billae, L. luschani) and from two altitudinal zones, the eumediterranean (0-400 m) and the supramediterranean (400-1100 m) belts or not. Skeletochronological age determination was successful in all 325 individuals sampled. Phalange bones showed a regular annual arrest of growth during winter. Local age at maturity varied between two and three years, maximum lifespan between nine and eleven years. Adult survivorship and subsequently estimated life expectancy of females exceeded slightly those of males, but sexual size dimorphism was absent in all taxa. L atifi were significantly larger than the other species due large size at birth and subsequent fast subadult growth. L. billae shared the fast subadult growth, but small birth size and same age at maturity contributed to a smaller maximum adult size. L. luschani had a large birth size and slow subadult growth irrespective of the elevation of habitat resulting in the same maximum size of adults as present in L billae. We concluded that a subterranean mode of living attenuated the thermal effects of altitude and that the minor, but detectable variation in life-history traits of the salamanders mainly resulted from the periods of surface activity. (C) 2017 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.