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First published online August 18, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 3321-3330 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01773

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Hypoxia progressively lowers thermal gaping thresholds in bearded dragons, Pogona vitticeps

Glenn J. Tattersall^* and Rebecca M. Gerlach

Department of Biological Sciences, Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario, L2S 3A1, Canada

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: gtatters{at}brocku.ca)

Accepted 30 June 2005

Most animals, including reptiles, lower body temperature (T_b) under hypoxic conditions. Numerous physiological and behavioural traits significant to the regulation of T_b are altered by hypoxia in ways that suggest an orchestrated adjustment of T_b at a new and lower regulated level. We examined this matter in bearded dragons, Pogona vitticeps, a species of reptile that naturally exhibits open mouth gaping at high temperatures, presumably in order to promote evaporation and thus prevent or avoid further increases in T_b. The threshold for the onset of gaping (assessed as the temperature at which lizards spent 50% of their time gaping) was reduced from 36.9°C in normoxia to 35.5°C at 10% and 34.3°C at 6% O₂. The overall magnitude or degree of gaping, measured qualitatively, was more pronounced at lower temperatures in hypoxia. Females consistently had lower gaping threshold temperatures than did males, and this difference was retained throughout exposure to hypoxia. In addition to gaping, evaporative water loss from the cloaca may also play a significant role in temperature regulation, since the ambient temperature at which cloacal discharge occurred was also reduced significantly in hypoxia. The results reported herein strongly support the view that hypoxia reduces temperature set-point in lizards and that such changes are coordinated by specific behavioural thermoeffectors that modulate evaporative water loss and thus facilitate a high potential for controlling or modifying T_b.

Key words: body temperature, evaporative heat loss, hypoxia, panting, reptile, set-point, sex differences, thermoregulation

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