Antonieta Labra

The ability to assess and respond to predation risk is a strong selective force. Detection of predators is carried out by one or more sensory modalities, but the use of chemoreception has significant advantages. This study examines the chemosensorial assessment of snake predation risk and corresponding behaviours in different species and population...

Species-specific recognition systems are fundamental to maintaining the cohesion of species, particularly when heterospecific matings are possible. Here, I examined whether species recognition may facilitate species isolation of Liolaemus lizards, for which up to seven closely related species with similar morphology and ecology may live in sympatry...

The evolution and functions of avian and mammalian antipredator calls are well understood, which contrasts with a lack of progress in reptiles. Here, we present the first investigation of the functions of a distress call in a lizard. We studied Liolaemus chiliensis, which emits a short and complex high-pitched scream when it is subdued. We determin...

The weeping lizard, Liolaemus chiliensis, emits distress calls when trapped by a predator. Conspecific lizards respond to such calls with prolonged immobility, which may increase their probability of remaining undetected by a predator. This benefit, however, depends on the ability to react to the alert message of the call, which may be impaired by...

Geckos stand out among lizards for communicating by means of visual, chemical, and acoustic modalities. Although these lizards are known for using these three modalities, the number of studies using them as subjects is restricted, especially those focused on the Chilean endemic genus Garthia. Here, we quantify the social behaviour of G. gaudichaudi...

Aim: Squamate fitness is affected by body temperature, which in turn is influenced by environmental temperatures and, in many species, by exposure to solar radiation. The biophysical drivers of body temperature have been widely studied, but we lack an integrative synthesis of actual body temperatures experienced in the field, and their relationship...

Species Distribution Models have emerged in recent decades as a powerful tool for biodiversity research, as they allow, for example, assessing the status of species in their whole distributions. These models have been particularly helpful in demonstrating that amphibian populations are at high risk, with many declining and others already extinct. H...

Simple Summary Lizards are considered voiceless animals, except for geckos. Nevertheless, increasing evidence shows that different non-gecko lizards emit oral sounds. For example, Pristidactylus lizards are known as ‘grunters’ since individuals emit oral sounds when they are under predation risk. We analyzed the characteristics of the sounds emitte...

Background Previous bibliometric studies in scientific researchers from developed countries generally support that sharing efforts during research enhances productivity and impact and suggest these effects may be important for researchers from less developed countries exhibiting more exiguous science budgets. We examined whether researchers in the...

Reproductive isolating barriers are a crucial element in the speciation process. From these barriers, and among those acting early in the speciation process (premating), the ethological ones can play a pivotal role in isolating populations or closely related species. In fact, the high diversity of some taxa has been correlated with an elevated dive...

Acoustic communication has been reported in the order Squamata, although there are still few studies on this behavior, which constrain our understanding of the functionality and evolution of vocalizations produced in Squamates, especially in the clade Unidentata. The Balsas Basin Whiptail (Aspidoscelis costatus costatus) is an endemic lizard to the...

Reportamos la primera evidencia que sugiere que el lagarto Liolaemus torresi podría consumir al insecto nativo, la polilla esfinge Hyles annei. Palabras claves.-dragón de Torres-Mura, carroña, desierto. NOTA CIENTÍFICA

Escaping from predation saves life, but costs energy and time. The "threat-sensitive predator-avoidance" hypothesis proposes that prey may modulate their antipredator responses, and thus the associated costs, in accordance with the magnitude of predation risk. This process requires that prey accurately assess this risk by decoding available informa...

Cannibalism involves killing and consuming an individual of the same species. Different factors modulate cannibalism, and here we explored whether the diet diversity would mediate the cannibalism propensity in Microlophus lizards. We compiled the available information on diet and cannibalism of the 22 Microlophus species. We found that there is a r...

Effective communication requires a match among signal characteristics, environmental conditions, and receptor tuning and decoding. The degree of matching, however, can vary, among others due to different selective pressures affecting the communication components. For evolutionary novelties, strong selective pressures are likely to act upon the sign...

List of the publications on C. gayi

Globally, at least 43% of amphibian species are declining, due primarily to habitat destruction and modification, over-exploitation, emerging diseases, and invasive alien species. In Chile there are 60 species of amphibians and of these, 62% are endemic and 73% are in a conservation category, such as the Chilean giant frog (Calyptocephalella gayi),...

Among amphibians, conspecific chemical communication has been widely studied in Caudata. Adult anurans, by contrast, have received less attention. Recently, it was shown that chemical scents are also relevant for adult anuran intraspecific communication. In this context, we evaluate whether females of the four-eyed frog (Pleurodema thaul) respond t...

El comportamiento social representa un aspecto central de la conducta de los animales que se manifiesta a través del contacto físico y del uso de diversas señales de comunicación (ej., químicas, auditivas, visuales), lo que modula, entre otras, las interacciones asociadas al acceso a recursos críticos como alimento, apareamiento o refugio para evit...

Pheromones, a mix of proteins and lipids, are involved in lizards' conspecific recognition. In our study, we specifically address whether fecal lipids are involved in conspecific recognition of the Weeping Lizard, Liolaemus chiliensis. The feces of each sex were dissolved in n-hexane to isolate their lipidic fraction. We then exposed individuals of...

Cover page- Journal of Zoology Volume 312-November 2020-Number 3

Vertebrate predation by invertebrates has been classically underexplored and thus underestimated, despite the fact that many arthropods consume vertebrates. To shed some light on the relevance that spider predation may have upon lizards in the Neotropical and Andean regions, we compiled the available information in the literature on this trophic in...

Some lizard species modulate the use of a retreat site based on the presence of scents from other individuals, behavior that requires scent recognition. Here, we investigated in two congeneric and syntopic lizards, adults of Liolaemus coeruleus and juveniles of L. ceii, which can be found sharing retreat sites in the wild, whether they discriminate...

Supporting information-RuizMonachesi et al 2020-JOZ

Supporting data -Unravelling associations among chemosensory system components in Liolaemus lizards. Journal of Zoology

Morphology can be associated with different aspects of an organisms' life and the size of sensorial organs may allow inferences on the relevance of sensorial systems employed by them. There are organs implied in signal detection (sensory organs) and production (emitting organs) that are linked frequently to behaviour. Lizards are mostly dependent o...

For a prey, its best ticket to stay alive is to get early and accurate information on predation risk and so, escape from predation at low cost. Some prey species have evolved the ability to eavesdrop signals intended for others, which contain information on predation risk. This is the case for the vocalizations produced by prey species when interac...

Individuals of many species utter distress calls when are attacked or trapped by a predator. These vocalizations can help them to escape but may also help conspecifics to reduce their predation risk, by inducing antipredator behaviours. Calls can encode information that modulates these antipredator responses , and the 'nonlinearity and fear hypothe...

Los gecos (infraorden Gekkota) destacan entre los lagartos por ser los más vocíferos, ya que, a diferencia de la mayoría de los saurios, estos emiten sonidos en diferentes contextos intra-e interespecíficos. En Chile existen escasos antecedentes sobre emisión de sonidos en gecos nativos, señalándose solo de manera anecdótica la producción de sonido...

Introducción *Conducta más común responsable por la emisión de sonidos. Observaciones de campo sugieren que A. costatus vocaliza al ser manipulada, lo que podría ser una respuesta antidepredatoria, co-mo la registrada en otros lagartos.

REALIDAD AUMENTADA : un recurso didáctico para la divulgación y colecciones científicas del siglo XXI Se generaron dos modelos 3D de muy alta calidad con sus respectivos marcadores para el uso de la aplicación de Realidad Aumentada para Android y iOS con la cual se pueden ver los especímenes en 3D.

Few studies on song learning have been conducted in the field. Male pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) seem to learn song syllables in the breeding grounds. Adult males arrive first to the breeding grounds and sing more complex songs until they have paired. Early arriving juveniles may have more opportunities to learn new syllables from adult ne...

Abstract In his recent self-published book "Reptiles en Chile", Diego Demangel Miranda presented 13 taxonomic changes for liolaemid and tropidurid lizards. While these could be considered validly published according to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, we show that these taxonomic propositions lack the necessary scientific rigor in...

In his recent self-published book "Reptiles en Chile", Diego Demangel Miranda presented 13 taxonomic changes for liolaemid and tropidurid lizards. While these could be considered validly published according to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, we show that these taxonomic propositions lack the necessary scientific rigor in terms of...

Las lagartijas son hospedadores de una amplia variedad de parásitos, entre ellos los ácaros, los cuales pueden tener efectos perjudiciales sobre el hospedador (Bulté et al., 2009) como lesiones en la piel, inflamación, anemia e incluso una carga parasitaria alta puede llevar a un potencial riesgo de la supervivencia (Klukowski 2004). En Chile, las...

Singing is a key element of songbirds' behavioral repertoire, particularly for males, which sing during the breeding season to defend resources against other males and to attract females. Different song traits may convey honest information about males' qualities or conditions, which may be used by females to select their mates. Traits under strong...

The microhabitat preferences of prey animals can modulate how they perceive predation risk, and therefore, their antipredator behaviour. We tested under standardized conditions how microhabitat preferences of two Liolaemus lizards affected their responses when confronted with two types of ambush predators (raptor vs. snake), under two levels of pre...

Lizards mainly depend on chemical and visual signals to communicate and, to a lesser extent, on acoustic signals, so generally it has been considered that these reptiles do not emit sounds. However, representatives of different lizard families can emit sounds through their mouths and in different contexts. In Chile, the reports on the emission of s...

Fires and volcanic eruptions produce ash that may negatively affect survivors of the disturbances themselves. Therefore, animals are expected to avoid areas covered by ash when possible. We tested this prediction by determining the substrate selection, ash versus soil, in two insectivorous Liolaemus lizard species. We exposed each species to the ty...

The behavior of lizards can be highly influenced by chemical senses. The most studied pheromonal sources in lizards has been the femoral and precloacal gland secretions, although studies have been focused on male secretions, probably because these glands are usually only present in males or are poorly developed in females when they are present. Her...

In migratory birds, mistimed arrival might have negative consequences for individual fitness, causing population declines. This may happen if arrival time is not synchronized with breeding time, especially when earlier springs favour earlier reproduction. We studied spring arrival time to the breeding areas in a pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca p...

In songbirds, the development of the species-specific adult song involves a learning process that varies in extension. In species that incorporate new song elements throughout life (open-ended learners), variation in male song composition could be the result of either age or breeding experience. Using data from 16 yr of fieldwork on pied flycatcher...

Here, we provide a new egg laying record for Liolaemus chiliensis, and investigate a potential correlation between female body size and egg clutch size.

This is the first report of Calyptocephalella gayi eating Xenopus laevis

It is described for the fi rst time the eye-bulging display in two liolaemid lizards, Liolaemus chiliensis and L. gravenhorstii. This display occurs in very low frequency and it was observed in captivity. It is discussed the possibility that the thermoregulation and/or eye-cleaning hypotheses may explain the occurrence of this display in these two...

Philodryas chamissonis is a rear-fanged snake endemic to Chile. Its bite produces mild to moderate symptoms with proteolytic and anti-coagulant effects. Presently, the composition of the venom, as well as, the biochemical and structural characteristics of its toxins, remains unknown. In this study, we cloned and reported the first full-length seque...

Here we investigate the general characteristic of the ventral portion of the proctodeal region in individuals of both sexes of Liolaemus irregularis Laurent, 1986, L. poecilochromus Laurent, 1986 and L. neuquensis Müller & Hellmich, 1939, in order to search for glands that may contribute scents to faeces.

These species datasheet were generated by the consulting project “RECOPILACIÓN DE DATOS E INFORMACIÓN PARA EL INVENTARIO NACIONAL DE ESPECIES DE REPTILES NATIVOS EN CHILE" of the Chilean Ministry of the Environment, through ASPAM company. All text by Jaime Troncoso-Palacios (jtroncosopalacios@gmail.com), All maps by Felipe Ascencio, Corrections b...

Liolaemid lizards and amphisbaenids have precloacal pores in the anterior border of the cloaca, where epidermal glands drain and expel pheromonal secretions. Precloacal glands occur usually only in males, but in those few species where both sexes have precloacal glands, these are larger in males. Only the morphology and/or histology of precloacal g...

Dentro del diverso género Liolaemus (> 240 spp.)‚ el lagarto llorón (L. chiliensis)‚ es el único que emite llamados de auxilio cuando es subyugado por un depredador. La estructura de éste llamado se caracteriza por tener armónicos de alta frecuencia‚ que incluso llegan al rango ultrasónico (>20 kHz). Se ha propuesto que estos llamados podrían alert...

The biodiversity of the entire planet is threatened by global warming, and among vertebrates, Amphibia is the taxon most negatively affected by this problem. Amphibians depend on an external heat source to achieve and maintain an adequate body temperature, which has a signifi cant impact on their fi tness. Therefore, an increase in the average envi...

In a predator-prey interaction, the fitnesses of the predator and the prey depend on their abilities to recognize each other, a process that may involve different sensory modalities. Squamate reptiles are highly dependent on chemical senses for such recognition, and here we explored the ability of a generalist saurophagous snake, Philodryas chamiss...

Mitochondrial light strand DNA replication is initiated at light strand replication origins (OLs), short stem-loop hairpins formed by the heavy strand DNA. OL-like secondary structures are also formed by heavy strand DNA templating for the five tRNAs adjacent to OLs, the WANCY tRNA cluster. We tested whether natural OL absence associates with great...

Diversas especies animales emiten llamadas de auxilio cuando son subyugados por un depredador, las que además tienden a ser similares intra- e interespecíficamente. El lagarto Liolaemus chiliensis, o lagarto llorón, emite vocalizaciones de auxilio, las cuales alertarían a conespecíficos del riesgo de depredadión. Objetivos: determinar si existe var...

The study of acoustic communication in lizards has been restricted and mainly focused on Gekkota. The rest of the lizards, Unidentata, are generally considered voiceless, although there are sparse reports on vocal sound production in members of different families. We analyzed the spectro-temporal characteristics of the distress calls emitted by the...

El capítulo rvisa aspectos general de los reptiles

With more than 220 species, the South American Liolaemus is one of the most species-rich lizard genera on earth (Lobo, Espinoza & Quinteros, 2010). Strikingly, however, the factors behind this diversification have not been studied much, and hypotheses, such as rapid speciation because of isolation during quaternary glaciations (Fuentes & Jaksic, 19...

Chemoreception is an important sensory modality used by lizards to assess their environments and to communicate. However, despite growing information regarding chemoreception in this taxon, its modulation by sex has been little explored, except in researches directly focused on reproductive aspects. In this study, we com-pared the responses of fema...

Protocolo para el control de la diseminación de patógenos que han sido asociados a la pérdida de anfibios a nivel global. El objetivo del manual, es proteger a los anfibios de enfermedades que puedan ser transmitidas involuntariamente por los seres humanos.

The parietal, or third, eye is a photosensory organ situated in the middle of the skull of many lizards. Despite many hypotheses, its exact ecological functions are still unclear. Studies have compared presence and absence of a functioning parietal eye, but there are no quantitative studies of parietal-eye traits in relation to ecology, physiology,...

Los incendios forestales son cada vez mas frecuentes en Chile y en el mundo, y sus consecuencias son un drástico cambio en el hábitat (e.g. disminución de refugios y alimento para los animales). En Chile tenemos una alta biodiversidad de lagartos con alto endemismo y desconocemos sus respuestas a los efectos del fuego, y por ende, cual es la posibi...

Microevolutionary studies often find that complex quantitative characters are highly evolvable and adapted to the local environment, while macroevolutionary studies often show evidence of strong phylogenetic effects and stasis. In this contribution, we show how phylogenetic comparative methods can be used to test hypotheses that may help resolve th...

Several studies have evaluated the relative contribution of various host-plant attributes to the species richness of the associated insect herbivores, with and without the inclusion of the phylogeny of the host species for Northern hemisphere trees. In general these studies reached the same conclusion: tree availability (range and abundance) was a...

Social–chemical recognition is exhibited by all the Liolaemus lizards tested to date, except Liolaemus fitzgeraldi, which during post-hibernation did not discriminate chemosignals of same-sex individuals from a control. To clarify if L. fitzgeraldi is unique among the studied Liolaemus in lacking social–chemical recognition or if this was previousl...

Es te capítulo resume el conocimiento existente a la fecha respecto a los aspectos básicos de la ecofisiología de herpetozoos residentes de Chile. Dado que el mayor desarrollo teórico y experimental de la ecofisiología de herpetozoos es en reptiles, el capítulo parte con la discusión de los estudios concernientes a termorregulación, energética y he...

Diversos factores influyen en los hábitos alimentarios de los herpetozoos, los cuales incluyen tanto factores bióticos extrínsecos (e.g., variaciones estacionales en la abundancia del alimento), como factores intrínsecos (e.g., cambios ontogenéticos). En Chile, como en otras partes del mundo, estos factores determinan el consumo de variadas categor...

Comuni cación es el fenómeno subyacente a cualquier interacción entre individuos, y este capítulo analiza algunas de las particularidades de la comunicación en reptiles. El capítulo ha sido dividido en cuatro secciones. En la primera de ellas, se entregan las bases teóricas del fenómeno de comunicación, junto con antecedentes básicos de las caracte...

The interspecific variation of heating rates in Liolaemus lizards, suggests an adaptive value of this physiological thermoregulatory mechanism, which would allow lizards to cope with the environmental thermal restrictions, imposed to behavioral thermoregulation. This trend has barely been tested at intraspecific level, and here we explore if intras...

Squamata reptiles are often divided in two major groups based on the main sensory modality that they use: the chemical/visual and the visual taxa. Although Liolaemus lizards belong to the visual taxon Iguania, I show that they may depend heavily on chemosignals in many different aspects of their life. The combined information from Liolaemus and oth...

Lizards from different families use acoustic signals in different communicative contexts. This study characterizes the hissing sounds emitted by individuals of Pristidactylus volcanensis (Polychrotidae) of both sexes, when confronted with a threatening stimulus. These hissing sounds have broadband spectra centered at 2.4–3.6 kHz throughout most of...

Ecological and phylogenetic factors determine which sensory modalities organisms use in their day-to-day activities. Among lizards, empirical studies indicate a tight association between foraging strategies and the ability to detect chemical cues from prey. Consequently, ambush insectivores do not detect food chemicals and these differences have a...

We studied sexual and geographic variation of color patterns in the lizard Liolaemus tenuis. We counted the number of scales with different colors in two body regions, in individuals of both sexes, from three groups of populations along a latitudinal range. Color patterns showed sexual and geographic variations; females and the northern group were...

Males from different iguanian lizard species engage in frequent visual signaling during agonistic interactions, mainly by displaying head bobs. We conducted a detailed study of the structure of head bob displays mediating male agonistic interactions in Liolaemus lemniscatus lizards. We staged pair-wise encounters where one male, the intruder, was p...

When an individual faces the risk of a conflict, its ability to make 'correct' decisions is crucial to its fitness. Research on decision making has focused mainly on visual and acoustic signals, while chemical signals have received much less attention, despite their relevance for many species. Chemosignals can be detected in the absence of the sign...

Liolaemus lizards were explored to ascertain whether they would make an amenable model to study single-cell electrophysiology of neurons in the vomeronasal organ (VNO). Despite a rich array of chemosensory-related behaviors chronicled for this genus, no anatomical or functional data exist for the VNO, the organ mediating these types of behaviors. T...

Although many factors have been shown to influence the evolution of species recognition signals in a wide variety of taxa, it is difficult to draw general conclusions because of fundamental differences in the morphologies and ecologies of the animals considered. In this study, two morphologically and ecologically similar lizard genera (Sceloporus a...

We explored chemical discrimination of own vs. novel space by different age classes (neonates, juveniles, and adults) of the lizard Liolaemus bellii, during pre- and post-hibernation seasons. We recorded the number of tongue flicks (TF) lizards produced during 10 min in their own or a novel enclosure. Age class and season affected chemical discrimi...

El objetivo de este capítulo es presentar un resumen de la historia de la termorregulación en reptiles y de su conceptualizaci6n biofísica. Resumimos los factores, mecanismos, los costos/ beneficios de la termorregulación, y se discuten los estudios clásicos. Adicionalmente, se incorporan aspectos de la bióloga térmica descrita para los reptiles en...

The chemical composition of secretions of precloacal pores from two populations of the lizard Liolaemus fabiani (Puilar and Punta-Brava) were compared. This is an endemic species from the Atacama Salt Flat (26°46'S 68°14'W; 2400 m) in northern Chile, restricted to the internal lakes of the salt flat. Interpopulational differences in the chemical co...

For territorial organisms, recognition of familiar individuals can reduce the frequency and intensity of aggressive encounters (‘dear enemy’ phenomenon), stabilize social systems, and reduce the cost of territory maintenance. Here, we investigated the behavioural events displayed during contests between familiar and unfamiliar individuals in the li...

Microlophus is a lizard genus of South-America which has many species with sexual size dimorphism. An ecological study was performed on M. atacamensis, a species inhabiting the intertidal zone of the coast of northern Chile. The following questions were addressed: (1) does M. atacamensis exhibit sexual dimorphism? (2) do individuals of different ag...

Experimental tests were conducted with the lizard Liolaemus tenuis (Tropiduridae), to determine the potential sources of pheromones used in its chemical communication, centered in the phenomenon of self-recognition. During the post-reproductive season, feces of both sexes and secretions of precloacal pores (present only in males) were tested. Stimu...

In squamate reptiles the effects of pregnancy on physiological thermoregulation, such as thermal tolerances and rates of heat exchange, are practically unknown. This is remarkable since pregnancy involves changes in body vascularization and may consequently affect heat exchange. We studied the effects of pregnancy on physiological thermoregulation...

Interspecific chemical variation of precloacal pore secretions of Liolaemus lizards was characterized in 20 species, and intraspecific chemical variation was characterized using nine individuals of L. bellii. The latitude (Chile, 18 degrees to 33 degrees South latitude) and altitude (100 to 4350 m.a.s.l.) of the capture sites were recorded, as well...