Mention was made recently of 32 degrees
C being the preferred temperature for many reptiles. Being only 11 months
behind (and catching up very slowly) in my reading of Australasian Science,
today I read in the October 2001 issue that temperature determines the
sex of skinks.
A Masters student found that in female skinks whose body temperature was maintained at 32 C, all offspring were male. As body temperature was lowered, the proportion of female offspring increased. At 25 C the offspring were evenly divided between male and female.
This is the first time that temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) has been demonstrated in skinks (which are viviparous). The evolutionary advantage of this is that skinks can regulate their own body temperature, so when an oversupply of either males or females occurs, the females can alter their body temperature to correct the imbalance.
