Behavioral thermoregulation by turtle embryos
Du, Wei-Guo (Creator), Zhao, Bo (Creator), Chen, Ye (Creator), Shine, Richard (Creator)
Mobile ectothermic animals can control their body temperatures by selecting specific thermal conditions in the environment, but embryos—trapped within an immobile egg and lacking locomotor structures—have been assumed to lack that ability. Falsifying that assumption, our experimental studies show that even early stage turtle embryos move within the egg to exploit small-scale spatial thermal heterogeneity. Behavioral thermoregulation is not restricted to posthatching life and instead may be an important tactic in every life-history stage
Downloadable Archival Material, English, uuuu
National Academy of Sciences, uuuu