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      A new tale of lost tails: Correlates of tail breakage in the worm lizard Amphisbaena vermicularis

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          Abstract

          Predator–prey interactions are important evolutionary drivers of defensive behaviors, but they are usually difficult to record. This lack of data on natural history and ecological interactions of species can be overcome through museum specimens, at least for some reptiles. When facing aggressive interactions, reptile species may exhibit the defensive behavior of autotomy by losing the tail, which is also known as “urotomy”. The inspection of preserved specimens for scars of tail breakage can reveal possible ecological and biological correlates of urotomy. Herein, we investigated how the probability of urotomy in the worm lizard Amphisbaena vermicularis is affected by sex, body size, temperature, and precipitation. We found higher chances of urotomy for specimens with larger body size and from localities with warmer temperatures or lower precipitation. There was no difference in urotomy frequency between sexes. Older specimens likely faced – and survived – more predation attempts through their lifetime than smaller ones. Specimens from warmer regions might be more active both below‐ and aboveground, increasing the odds to encounter predators and hence urotomy. Probability of urotomy decreased with increased precipitation. Possibly, in places with heavier rainfall worm lizards come more frequently to the surface when galleries are filled with rainwater, remaining more exposed to efficient predators, which could result in less survival rates and fewer tailless specimens. This interesting defensive behavior is widespread in squamates, but yet little understood among amphisbaenians. The novel data presented here improve our understanding on the correlates of tail breakage and help us to interpret more tales of lost tails.

          Abstract

          Preserved specimens can be used to improve our understanding on the behavioral ecology of reptiles. In inspecting scars of tail breakage in preserved specimens of worm lizards, the chances of tail loss increased with body size and temperature, and decreased with precipitation. Tail loss was not affected by sex, suggesting similar predation pressure on both male and female worm lizards.

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              The Commonness, And Rarity, of Species

              F. Preston (1948)
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                mariormoura@gmail.com
                Journal
                Ecol Evol
                Ecol Evol
                10.1002/(ISSN)2045-7758
                ECE3
                Ecology and Evolution
                John Wiley and Sons Inc. (Hoboken )
                2045-7758
                19 November 2020
                December 2020
                : 10
                : 24 ( doiID: 10.1002/ece3.v10.24 )
                : 14247-14255
                Affiliations
                [ 1 ] Programa de Pós‐Graduação em Ecologia e Evolução Departamento de Ecologia Universidade Federal de Goiás Goiânia Goiás Brazil
                [ 2 ] Programa de Pós‐Graduação em Zoologia Departamento de Zoologia Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte Minas Gerais Brazil
                [ 3 ] Departamento de Biologia Animal Museu de Zoologia João Moojen Universidade Federal de Viçosa Viçosa Minas Gerais Brazil
                [ 4 ] Departamento de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal da Paraíba Areia Paraiba Brazil
                [ 5 ]Present address: Departamento de Zoologia Instituto de Ciências Biológicas Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora Juiz de Fora Minas Gerais Brazil
                Author notes
                [*] [* ] Correspondence

                Mario R. Moura, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Areia, PB, Brazil.

                Email: mariormoura@ 123456gmail.com

                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0485-3994
                https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1663-2371
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7369-7502
                Article
                ECE37023
                10.1002/ece3.7023
                7771140
                d1a30c04-0a07-4264-a0a3-e7eed916530d
                © 2020 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

                This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 22 September 2020
                : 19 October 2020
                : 23 October 2020
                Page count
                Figures: 3, Tables: 1, Pages: 9, Words: 7284
                Funding
                Funded by: Field Museum of Natural History
                Funded by: American Museum of Natural History , open-funder-registry 10.13039/100005835;
                Funded by: Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior , open-funder-registry 10.13039/501100002322;
                Categories
                Original Research
                Original Research
                Custom metadata
                2.0
                December 2020
                Converter:WILEY_ML3GV2_TO_JATSPMC version:5.9.9 mode:remove_FC converted:10.03.2021

                Evolutionary Biology
                amphisbaenidae,autotomy,defensive behavior,natural history,tail loss,urotomy
                Evolutionary Biology
                amphisbaenidae, autotomy, defensive behavior, natural history, tail loss, urotomy

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