Physiological and behavioral control of heating and cooling rates in rubber boas, Charina bottae

✍ Scribed by Ying Zhang; Marjorie C. Westfall; Kathleen C. Hermes; Michael E. Dorcas

• Book ID: 104035048
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 128 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0306-4565
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2007.08.005

✦ Synopsis

1. We examined the ability of rubber boas (Charina bottae) to physiologically and behaviorally control their heating and cooling rates between 5 and 35 1C with constrained and unconstrained postural treatments.

2. In both the unconstrained and constrained treatments, heating rates were faster than cooling rates (ANOVA; F ¼ 52.25; df ¼ 22; po0.001), suggesting that rubber boas can physiologically slow their cooling rates and/or accelerate their heating rates.

3. Our findings provide a greater understanding of physiological thermoregulation in rubber boas and insight into mechanisms of reptilian thermoregulation.