Biodemography of Ectothermic Tetrapods Provides Insights into the Evolution and Plasticity of Mortality Patterns

Abstract/Summary

In this paper we examine the biodemography of wild populations of three species (a turtle, a frog, and a snake). All are ectotherms, an understudied subset of the vertebrate taxa for understanding aging. Employing a comparative perspective by examining wild populations of relatively long-lived ectothermic vertebrates, we found that (1) across all three species, there was strong evidence for mortality senescence and (2) environmental factors, including stress, influence age-specific patterns of mortality both in current and later years and therefore produces plastic variation in the shapes of mortality trajectories.