A Study of Respiration in Hibernating Horned Lizards, Phrynosoma cornutum
A Study of Respiration in Hibernating Horned Lizards, Phrynosoma cornutum
复制标题
冬眠角蜥蜴呼吸的研究
作者：
G. Potter;H. Glass
尽管近年来对不同动物冬眠时的呼吸交换进行了许多研究，但据作者所知，还没有针对蜥蜴，特别是角蜥蜴的研究。有角蜥蜴，或者俗称的有角“蟾蜍”，非常温顺，不会在自卫时造成任何伤害。它会在很长一段时间内保持完全安静，而不会挣扎着逃跑。这些特性使其成为代谢研究的合适课题。这种动物与同类中的其他动物一样，会在 10 月底或 11 月初将自己埋在沙子下进行冬眠，并在 3 月底或 4 月初在德克萨斯州中部再次出现。它有一种有趣的埋藏方式，韦斯对此进行了详细描述。鼻子被推入沙子中，左右移动，而身体也左右蠕动，从而挖空沙子，直到它滚到动物身上。蜥蜴在其活跃期的夜间会以这种方式将自己埋在沙子表面下，但在冬眠时会埋得更深。它可以在不吃不喝的情况下生存相对较长的时间：一个标本在整个冬眠期和整个春天只吃一次饲料，除了禁食的最后一个月外不喝水，一直活到七月中旬才死亡。
A LTHOUGH a number of investigations have been made during recent years on the respiratory exchange of different animals in hibernation, so far as the authors know, there have been none on the lizards and the horned lizard in particular. The horned lizard, or horned "toad" as it is commonly called, is very docile and is incapable of inflicting any kind of injury in self-defense. It will remain perfectly quiet for long periods of time without struggling to escape. These characteristics make it a suitable subject for metabolism studies. This animal hibernates, in common with the other animals of its group, by burying itself beneath the sand in late October or early November and making its reappearance late in March or early April in central Texas. It has an interesting method of burying itself, which has been described in detail by Weese. The snout is pushed into the sand with movements from side to side while the body also wriggles from side to side, thus hollowing out the sand until it rolls over the animal. The lizard buries itself under the surface of the sand in this fashion at night during its active period but goes much deeper for hibernation. It can subsist for relatively long periods without food or drink: one specimen which was kept through the period of hibernation and on through the spring with only one feeding and without water except in the last month of its fast, lived until the middle of July before it succumbed.