Global gaps in age data based on skeletochronology for amphibians

作     者：Zhiwei PENG Lixia ZHANG Xin LU 

作者机构：Department of EcologyCollege of Life SciencesWuhan UniversityWuhanChina Department of EcologyCollege of Life SciencesHenan Normal UniversityXinxiangChina 

出 版 物：《Integrative Zoology》 (整合动物学（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2022年第17卷第5期

页      面：752-763页

核心收录：

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 07[理学] 0905[农学-畜牧学] 0906[农学-兽医学] 071002[理学-动物学] 

基　　金：funded by National Sciences Foundation of China(No.31272308 and 31872216). 

主　　题：amphibia demography life-history trait review 

摘      要：Individual age and population age composition are the major concerns of ecologists,evolutionary biologists and conservation biologists.In amphibians,skeletochronology-counting the number of lines of arrested growth deposited in the bone tissue,is the dominant method to determine actual age of an individual.Since 1970s,age data of the ectothermic taxa have been accumulated and increasingly used in comparative studies.Here we make a global assessment for the availability of the data,based on a collection of 369 published papers.For a specific species,more males than females were sampled.Among the extant 8146 amphibian species,only 266(3.3%)have been skeletochronologically investigated.Of these studied species,2(0.9%of 214)belong to caecilians,56(7.6%of 740)salamanders and 208(2.9%of 7192)anurans.A complete paucity of data was seen in 80%,50%,and 54%of families in the corresponding orders.More temperate species than tropical species were sampled,while the proportion of Palearctic species studied was higher than that in the other 5 biogeographical realms.Species inhabiting semi-aquatic niche were more likely to be studied than fossorial or plant dwellers.Age information of multiple populations(2-48)was available for species with a broad distribution,accounts for 61%of salamander and 43%of anuran species studied.Because these gaps in demographic knowledge can limit our understanding of questions ranging from life history evolution,population dynamics to conservation,we encourage herpetologists to pay more efforts on filling them.