New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts

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The effect of temperature on the metabolism of juvenile tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus

L. K. CARTLAND
N. M. GRIMMOND*

Department of Zoology
University of Otago
P.O. Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand

Abstract  Resting metabolic rates of juvenile tuatara (1-2 year old) were found to be significantly affected by ambient temperature over the range 5-22.5deg.C. The younger, smaller animals had higher rates of mass-specific metabolism than the older and larger juveniles, significantly so at the lower and higher experimental temperatures. There is evidence of a compensatory, temperature-independent metabolic decline in juvenile tuatara in the mid-temperature range, similar to that found in other cool-temperate reptiles. The mass-specific metabolic rates of juvenile tuatara are high when compared with a small data sample of metabolic rates for adult tuatara, but similar to those of some small New Zealand lizards.

Keywords  body weight; juvenile; metabolism; Sphenodon; temperature; tuatara

New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 1994, Vol. 21: 373-378

0301-4223/2104-0373 $2.50/0   (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 1994

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (310K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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