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Body Temperature Affects Locomotion Of Reptiles

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How does body temperature affect the locomotion of reptiles?

Reptiles are a group of vertebrates that live under various environments both aquatic and terrestrial ranged from the tropical desert to the Arctic Ocean. Common types of reptiles include snakes, lizards, salamanders, crocodiles and turtles. Reptiles are ectoderms that adjust their own body temperature according to the environmental temperature, and reptiles can survive in relatively extreme temperatures. It is interesting to study whether the body temperature affects the locomotion of reptiles, and if it does, how the relationship between body temperature and the locomotion of reptiles plays out. What contributes to such temperature’s effect on locomotion?
Before we study how …show more content…

The velocity of locomotion of reptiles increases as the body temperature increases within a specific temperature range for a given species. This range is from its lower lethal temperature to its optimal temperature at which the maximum locomotion speed occurs. Once the specific temperature at which the maximum locomotion speed occurs is reached, the rate at which the reptile’s locomotion speed increases starts to slow down and eventually levels off. Bennett conducted an experiment testing the lizard’s behavior with regard to their thermal dependence. He found that among all species examined, the highest activity of burst speed are attained at 30°C, but further increase in temperature does not increase the burst speed above 30°C (Bennett, 1980). Christian et al. supported this claim by finding a linear relationship between the body temperature and sprint speed and the termination of the relationship that occurs above 32°C as sprint speed levels offs from 32°C (Christian et al, 1981). Turner et al. found that the average burst swimming speed of alligators increased from 0.47 m/s to 0.89 m/s when the body temperature increased from 15°C to 25°C, but the burst speed did not continue to increase when the temperature went from 25°C to 35°C (Turner et al. …show more content…

Temperature affects the way the reptile locomote. Turner et al found that temperature affects how often alligators swam using their legs as paddles. As the temperature increases from 15 to 35°C, the use of their legs becomes less frequent in swimming. Temperature also affected the frequency with which the alligators swam breaching the surface of the water. As the temperature increased from 15 to 25°C, the frequency of the alligators having its head out of water decreased, and then the frequency increased when temperature reached beyond 25 till 35°C. The body temperature also affect the mode that a reptile chose to locomote, as the alligator swam more frequently at 25°C and it becomes less frequent as the body temperature deviate from 25°C (Turner et al. 1985). Some of these aspects of locomotion, which are affected by changing the body temperature, could also in turns affect the velocity of locomotion. For example, the decreasing in frequency of alligators using legs as paddles, as result of increasing boy temperature, increases their swimming burst speed (Turner et al.

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