Body size, age structure and survival rates in two populations of the Beyşehir frog Pelophylax caralitanus

By

Arısoy, Ayşen Günay
Başkale, Eyup

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2019-9-10

Original Publication

Subterranean Biology

Volume

32

Pages

195--201

Subjects

age at sexual maturity , Amphibia , Growth rates , Longevity , Survival rate

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.32.e35772

 

Abstract

In many amphibians, skeletochronology is a reliable tool for assessing individual mean longevity, growth rates and age at sexual maturity. We used this approach to determine the age structure of 162 individuals from two Pelophylax caralitanus populations. All individuals exhibited Lines of Arrested Growth (LAGs) in the bone cross-sections and the average age varied between 4.5 and 5.4 years in both Işıklı and Burdur populations. Although intraspecific age structure and sex-specific age structure did not differ significantly between populations, we found that the Işıklı population had a lower body size in the same age class, had lower growths rates and lower values of survival rates and adult life expectancy than the Burdur population.