Geographic Variation in Timekeeping Systems among Three Populations of Garter Snakes (<i>Thamnophis sirtalis</i>) in a Common Garden
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Transduction of environmental cues into endocrine signals that synchronize physiology and behavior with optimal environmental conditions is central to an animal's timekeeping system. Using a common garden approach, we investigated possible geographic variation in timekeeping systems by comparing 24-h melatonin and corticosterone rhythms and reproductive behavior among three populations of garter snakes with very different life histories: red-sided garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) from Manitoba, Canada; red-spotted garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis concinnus) from western Oregon; and eastern garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) from southern Florida. Melatonin and corticosterone cycles differed significantly among the three snake populations in a majority of the sampling periods. Population differences were observed across a wide range of acclimatization conditions and were themselves plastic (i.e., one snake population was not consistently different from the others). Changes in courtship behavior during emergence also varied significantly among populations. Our data support the hypothesis that endogenous timekeeping systems have evolved in the presence of unique environmental conditions. Further research is necessary to determine whether this geographic variation results from inherent genetic differences or whether it is a product of development. These studies provide insight into the evolution of timekeeping systems and may aid in understanding the potential effects of environmental perturbations on seasonal physiology and behavior.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".