Diversity of Reproductive Strategies Among Brazilian Lizards and Snakes: The Significance of Lineage and Adaptation

Abstract

At one time, it was believed that the local environment was the most important determinant of reproductive strategies in squamate reptiles (Tinkle et al. 1970). Long-term field studies demonstrating geographic differences in reproductive characteristics among populations of individual species occurring in different habitats (e.g., Tinkle and Ballinger 1972; Ballinger 1979) lended support to this notion. If the local environment were the overriding variable contributing to life history variation, it would be expected that species at any given locality would be more similar to each other in reproductive characteristics than to species or populations occurring in very different habitats. More recently, it has been demonstrated that lineage (phylogeny), foraging mode, body size, and body shape, as dictated by habitat selection, account for more of the variation in life history characteristics among squamate reptiles than the local environment (Vitt and Congdon 1978; Vitt 1981; Vitt and Price 1982; Dunham and Miles 1985; Dunham et al. 1988), even though the latter certainly influences reproductive characteristics (see below). In order to understand the evolution of reptilian life histories, it will be necessary to consider all components of variation (Ballinger 1983). The greatest gap in our knowledge of reptilian reproductive patterns stems from a lack of data on tropical species, which comprise a vast majority of the species on earth.