Sexual dimorphism in the hindlimb ofEleutherodactylus coqui: Does behavior predict morphology?
✍ Scribed by Townsend, Daniel S. ;Wassersug, Richard J. ;King, V. Ann ;Elder, Geoffrey C. B.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1990
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 511 KB
- Volume
- 255
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-104X
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Eleutherodactylus coqui differs from most other anuran amphibians in that it has internal fertilization. This requires close apposition of male and female cloacae during amplexus, achieved by a reverse hindleg clasp (RHLC) where—rather than the male clasping the female with his forelimbs, as occurs in most anurans—the female adducts her hindlimbs around the male. Since normal amplexus in anurans is associated with enlarged forelimb muscles in males of some species, we asked whether the RHLC of E. coqui was associated with enlarged hindlimb adductors in the female or with other sexually dimorphic myological specializations. Several features, such as muscle fiber number, size, type, and overall cross‐sectional area were compared between male and female adult E. coqui for two muscles essential to the RHLC and a control hindlimb muscle not used in the behavior. No sexual dimorphism was found that could be specifically related to the RHLC. While muscles in all cases were larger in the females than in the males, this was accounted for by the larger body size of females in this species.