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The influence of urbanization on morphological traits in the Balsas Basin Whiptail lizard (Aspidoscelis costatus costatus)

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Abstract

Urbanization is the process of wildlands transformation for development of human settlements and the resulting ecosystem presents changes that could affect animal populations. Aspidoscelis costatus costatus is an endemic Mexican lizard (Family Teiidae); preliminary observations show possible effects of urbanization on this lizard. We collected 50 A. costatus costatus from an urban area in Ixtapan de la Sal, Estado de México, that were compared with 56 A. costatus costatus from wildlands close to Ixtapan de la Sal and Tonatico, Estado de México. Weight, snout-vent length and other eight morphometric traits, and three meristic traits were recorded for each specimen. We compared between habitat types (urban and wildlands), the differences in morphological variation (dispersion measures), and morphological shifts (central tendency measures) using univariate and multivariate statistical methods. Multivariate results show morphological shifts, but not significant differences in morphological variation. Therefore, there exist no influence of urbanization in the population canalization. In the univariate analyses, four characteristic show differences in dispersion measures using variance-ratio test for normal traits (axilla-groin length and hindlimb length) and Levene’s test for non-normal traits (supraocular scales and femoral pores). Likewise, eight characteristics show differences in central tendency using ANCOVA with snout-vent length as covariate for morphometrics traits (limb measurements, head measurements and axilla-groin length) and Mann-Whitney U test for meristic traits (femoral pores). The differences in some morphometric traits could be explained by the flight requirements of the population in the urbanized habitat; in addition, the differences in femoral pores may be related with chemical pollution.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Delgado family for permission to capture and release individuals of Aspidoscelis costatus costatus on their property in Ixtapan de la Sal. Thanks also go to students from the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, including Daniel Sánchez-Manjarrez, Edgar Vásquez-Alcántara, Orlando Suárez-Rodríguez and Ailed Pérez-Pérez, for their help during samplings in the field. We would like to thank to project UAEM 2620/2008 U.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Herpetología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Instituto Literario # 100, Colonia Centro, Toluca, 50000, Estado de México, Mexico

    Aldo Gómez-Benitez, Ana Esthela López-Moreno & Oswaldo Hernández-Gallegos

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    James Martin Walker

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  1. Aldo Gómez-Benitez
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  3. Ana Esthela López-Moreno
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  4. Oswaldo Hernández-Gallegos
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Aldo Gómez-Benitez, Ana Esthela López-Moreno and Oswaldo Hernández-Gallegos. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Aldo Gómez-Benitez, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Aldo Gómez-Benitez.

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Scientific Collector Permit FAUT 0186, SEMARNAT.

The whole study was conducted following ethical norms for animal experiments and procedures for research at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México.

Welfare of animals

All the organisms collected were returned to the exact place where they were found without any kind of injuries.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Availability of data and material

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, Gómez-Benitez, A.

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Gómez-Benitez, A., Walker, J.M., López-Moreno, A.E. et al. The influence of urbanization on morphological traits in the Balsas Basin Whiptail lizard (Aspidoscelis costatus costatus). Urban Ecosyst 24, 327–333 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-01038-7

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