Effect of Temperature on Development of Scutellation in the Garter Snake, Thamnophis elegans atratus
Effect of Temperature on Development of Scutellation in the Garter Snake, Thamnophis elegans atratus
复制标题
温度对袜带蛇盾片发育的影响
作者：
W. Fox
尽管爬行动物学界似乎有一些感觉，认为爬行动物规模特征的某些地理差异可能是由于温度而不是遗传差异造成的，但尚未有成功的实验报道来检验这一假设。太平洋沿岸袜带蛇 Thamnophis elegans atratus（参见 Fox, 1948; Fitch, 1940: 89），从较温暖的地区到较冷的地区，向北和向海岸的某些规模计数平均减少。这种袜带蛇占据了加利福尼亚海岸的一条狭窄地带，从俄勒冈州线到圣巴巴拉（Fitch，loc. cit.）。由于这种形式的尺度变化趋势，设计了一组实验来测试温度对来自仔细研究的同质当地群体的发育中胚胎的尺度特征的影响。繁殖和饲养爬行动物的技术困难使得遗传方法变得不切实际。
ALTHOUGH there seems to have been some feeling in herpetological circles that certain geographic variation in scale characters of reptiles might be due to temperature rather than to genetic differences, no successful experiments have been reported that test this hypothesis. The Pacific coast garter snake, Thamnophis elegans atratus (see Fox, 1948; Fitch, 1940: 89), displays an average reduction in certain scale counts northward and coastward from warmer to cooler regions. This race of garter snake occupies a narrow strip of the coast of California from about the Oregon state line to Santa Barbara (Fitch, loc. cit.). Because of the trend of scale variation in this form a set of experiments was designed to test the effect of temperature on the scale characters of developing embryos from a carefully studied, homogeneous, local population. Technical difficulties in breeding and raising reptiles made a genetic approach impractical.