Postembryonic development of the Tri-spine Horseshoe Crab Tachypleus tridentatus (Merostomata: Xiphosura) in a nursery habitat in the Philippines
| Autor: | Sabine Schoppe, Dorkas Kaiser |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Xiphosura development stages lcsh:QH1-199.5 Zoology lcsh:General. Including nature conservation geographical distribution Management Monitoring Policy and Law Merostomata 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences lcsh:QH540-549.5 allometry tri-spine horseshoe crab Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Nursery habitat intertidal zone Nature and Landscape Conservation Tachypleus tridentatus biology 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology biology.organism_classification Horseshoe crab size-age relationship Spine (zoology) juveniles Animal Science and Zoology lcsh:Ecology morphometry growth curve |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Threatened Taxa, Vol 10, Iss 15, Pp 12916-12932 (2018) |
| ISSN: | 0974-7907 0974-7893 |
| DOI: | 10.11609/jott.4125.10.15.12916-12932 |
| Popis: | Populations of the Tri-spine Horseshoe Crab Tachypleus tridentatus have dramatically decreased over their distribution range and conservation efforts are now crucial. The implementation of appropriate management strategies and stock assessment rely on accurate growth-rate estimates. The postembryonic development of the species in the tropics, however, is not elucidated. To provide the information needed to assess the demographics of juvenile populations and to judge the status of T. tridentatus in the Philippines, we conducted a mark-recapture experiment in a nursery habitat on Palawan Island. The results obtained during the 10-month period provide the first consecutive data on the stepwise growth of the species in the Philippines and the first near comprehensive dataset collected within a single population of juveniles in the tropics. By analyzing size-frequency (prosomal width) distributions of 853 individuals and by using 94 juveniles that molted during the study, 13 molt stages were differentiated. Based on the intermolt periods of six instars, we estimated the growth curve of T. tridentatus following two models (non-linear and power function). The data support the assumption that growth continues year-round in the tropics and also indicate that the average age of mature male and female T. tridentatus in the Philippines ranges from three to four years. The agreement with a field study in Japan suggests that 14 postembryonic stages may be characteristic for the development of natural populations throughout the range of the species. Though more data are needed to validate these results, the study provides a sound baseline for future studies in the tropics. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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