Seasonal changes in the gross organ composition of the lizard, Anolis carolinensis

✍ Scribed by Dessauer, Herbert C.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1955
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 647 KB
• Volume: 128
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-104X
• DOI: 10.1002/jez.1401280102

✦ Synopsis

Although seasonal changes in organ composition have been determined in many types of mammals and amphibians, reptiles have been little utilized in such studies. During the last 4 years the lizard, Anolis carolirzelzsis, has been investigated extensively and found to undergo striking seasonal cycles in organ size and chemical composition. These changes are closely allied with the reproductive activities of spring and summer. the intense feeding period of late summer and autumn, :md the relative inactivity of the winter months.

Methods

All measurements and chemical analyses were done upon animals freshly captured in the New Orleans area and fasted 4 days at 28°C. Almost every month for an 18-month period, 10 to 30 animals were sacrificed for organ composition studies. Livers, fat bodies, gonads and eggs were removed and immediately weighed on a torsion balance. Single or pooled organs were dried to constant weight over d f n r i c acid in a vacuum desiccator, ground to a fine powder and extracted with ether. The ether was evaporated from the extracts and the lipid mighed. Total nitrogen was determined on the lipid free organ residues by means of a micro Kjeldahl procedure and Conway microdiffusion units ( Conway, '40). 1