THE ROLE OF PREDATION IN SHAPING CROCODILIAN NATURAL HISTORY
THE ROLE OF PREDATION IN SHAPING CROCODILIAN NATURAL HISTORY
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DOI：
10.1655/herpmonographs-d-11-00001
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发表时间：
2013-01-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Shine, Richard
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Somaweera, Ruchira;Brien, Matthew;Shine, Richard
虽然成年鳄鱼几乎没有天敌（主要是人类和其他鳄鱼），但孵化的幼鱼和卵被各种无脊椎动物，鱼类，无尾类，爬行动物，鸟类和哺乳动物杀死和消耗。我们回顾已发表的文献，以评估鳄鱼种群捕食的发生率，以及鳄鱼生活史进化的死亡率的影响。据推测，因为捕食是大小依赖，小型鳄鱼类群似乎更容易受到捕食（在一系列的生命阶段）比大型物种。鳄鱼生物学的几个特征可能反映了减少对捕食的脆弱性的适应性。例如，捕食的威胁可能影响了性状的进化，如巢址选择，母亲对蛋和幼鸟的照顾，幼鸟的托儿所行为，以及神秘的颜色和图案。即使是像鳄鱼这样的大型和表面上无懈可击的分类群，避免捕食似乎也是行为，形态和生态学上的一个重要选择力。
Although adult crocodilians have few predators (mostly humans and other crocodilians), hatchlings and eggs are killed and consumed by a diverse array of invertebrates, fishes, anurans, reptiles, birds, and mammals. We review published literature to evaluate the incidence of predation in crocodilian populations, and the implications of that mortality for crocodilian life-history evolution. Presumably because predation is size-dependent, small-bodied crocodilian taxa appear to be more vulnerable to predation (across a range of life stages) than are larger-bodied species. Several features of crocodilian biology likely reflect adaptations to reducing vulnerability to predation. For example, the threat of predation may have influenced the evolution of traits such as nest-site selection, maternal care of eggs and hatchlings, creche behavior in hatchlings, and cryptic coloration and patterning. Even for such large and superficially invulnerable taxa such as crocodilians, the avoidance of predation appears to have been a significant selective force on behavior, morphology, and ecology.