Marine turtles produce many offspring which offsets the high mortality
experienced by turtles during early development. Juvenile mortality might be reduced by
evolving effective behavioral as well as morphological anti-predator defenses. Body
proportions of three species (Caretta caretta, Chelonia mydas, Dermochelys coriacea) of
turtles were measured in the first fourteen weeks of development to examine how growth
may mitigate predation by gape-limited predators. Growth was categorized as isometric
if shape did not change during development or allometric if body shape did change. All
three species showed allometric growth in carapace width; however it was less
pronounced in the larger D. coriacea turtles. Allometric growth in carapace width
decreased as all three species grew in size. When high predation occurs in early
development, many species will favor rapid growth into a size refuge. Juvenile sea turtles
may optimize their survival by growing allometrically when predation risk is the greatest. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fau.edu/oai:fau.digital.flvc.org:fau_13693 |
| Contributors | Pate, Jessica Hope (author), Salmon, Michael (Thesis advisor), Florida Atlantic University (Degree grantor), Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, Department of Biological Sciences |
| Publisher | Florida Atlantic University |
| Source Sets | Florida Atlantic University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 48 p., application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder., http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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