Body lifting, flattening, and burying of Tropidurus catalanensis Gudynas &amp; Skuk, 1983 (Squamata, Tropiduridae): Defense, thermoregulation, or both?

Thiago Maia-Carneiro,Carlos Arturo Navas

doi:10.21472/bjbs(2020)071709

Abstract

Lizards of the genus Tropidurus display different behaviors for thermoregulation and defense. Here, we report new displays for Tropidurus catalanensis, which helps to understand how these lizards behave. Captive individuals lifted, flattened, and buried their bodies. Flattening and upstanding the bodies allow looking larger and may discourage attacks, as well as respectively enhance and decrease the approximation and the contact of body surfaces with substrates to thermoregulate. Burying themselves into earth and sand may help lizards to avoid or escape from menaces. When we first opened the containers, the T. catalanensis were already partially covered by vermiculite, which did not allow stating if they did it in response to supposed risks of predation because perceived the movements in the room or were already buried. Tropidurus catalanensis possibly may bury themselves to avoid detection during periods of inactivity. The self-burying behavior may be useful also for thermoregulation using substrate temperatures. Tropidurus catalanensis may increase the chances of getting out safe from dangerous interactions and of effective thermoregulation by performing such behaviors. Although we discussed the behaviors on the views of defense and thermoregulation, the body lifting, the flattening, and the burying seemed have occurred in a defensive context.

Highlights

Lizards of the genus Tropidurus display different behaviors for thermoregulation and defense (Machado et al, 2007; Nunes et al, 2012; Maia-Carneiro and Rocha, 2015, 2017, 2020a, b; Maia-Carneiro et al, 2020), as so Tropidurus catalanensis, which controls body temperatures using substrate temperatures and performs immobility, locomotor escape by running and climbing, squirreling, tail waving, tail lifting, mouth opening, forced escape, and cloacal discharge (Maia-Carneiro et al, 2020)
We report behaviors not yet known for T. catalanensis, which helps to ISSN 2358-2731/BJBS-2020-0056/2020/7/17/9/339
As T. catalanensis remained in sight when flattening and upstanding their bodies, they may have done that not to conceal themselves, but to look larger and discourage attacks

Summary

Introduction

Lizards of the genus Tropidurus display different behaviors for thermoregulation and defense (Machado et al, 2007; Nunes et al, 2012; Maia-Carneiro and Rocha, 2015, 2017, 2020a, b; Maia-Carneiro et al, 2020), as so Tropidurus catalanensis, which controls body temperatures using substrate temperatures (see Maia-Carneiro and Navas, 2021) and performs immobility, locomotor escape by running and climbing, squirreling, tail waving, tail lifting, mouth opening, forced escape, and cloacal discharge (Maia-Carneiro et al, 2020). Maia-Carneiro and Navas understand how these lizards thermoregulate and evade potentially harmful interactions. The individuals were held in captivity in a climatic room with controlled temperatures during 2018 in the Laboratory of Ecophysiology and Evolutionary Physiology of the São Paulo University, Municipality of São Paulo, State of São Paulo, Brazil, where they lifted, flattened, and buried their bodies.

Results

Conclusion