Reproductive Strategies of Geckos: The Role of Macroevolutionary Novelties and Phenotypic Plasticity

Presented Ph.D. thesis contains an introduction and four chapters concerning reproductive strategies in geckos. The chapters include four peer-reviewed papers and a submitted manuscript. All geckos share rather exceptional reproductive trait known as invariant clutch size, which is characterised by low and invariable clutch size. The first chapter demonstrates that invariant clutch size probably evolved in geckos under selection for enlargement of investment per offspring. On the other hand, in anoles (a group not related to geckos possessing the same mode of reproduction) invariant clutch size allowed considerable decrease of female reproductive burden. Moreover, the interspecific allometries of egg mass and clutch mass in anoles and geckos are informative for understanding of reproductive allometries in a broader context of squamate reptiles. The second chapter is focused on a trade-off in energy investment among reproduction, growth and fat storage in a gecko Paroedura picta. Surprisingly, there seems to exist a clear hierarchical rule for allocation among particular life-history traits. Effect of temperature on reproductive rate in the same species of gecko is the subject of the third chapter. Observed thermal dependence is in contrast to the general relationship suggested under the so-called..