CIBIO, Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, InBIO, Universidade do Porto, Campus de Vairão, Rua Pedro Armando Quintas n°7, Vairão, 4485 - 661, Vila do Conde, Portugal; Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, R. Campo Alegre, s/n, 4169 - 007, Porto, Portugal.
CIBIO, Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, InBIO, Universidade do Porto, Campus de Vairão, Rua Pedro Armando Quintas n°7, Vairão, 4485 - 661, Vila do Conde, Portugal.
J Therm Biol. 2020 Oct;93:102700. doi: 10.1016/j.jtherbio.2020.102700. Epub 2020 Sep 6.
Infrared (IR) thermal imaging has become an increasingly popular tool to measure body temperature of animals. The high-resolution data it provides with short lag and minimum disturbance makes it an appealing tool when studying reptile thermal ecology. However, due to the common phenomenon of regional heterothermy and surface-to-core temperature gradients, it is essential to select the appropriate body part to measure and provide calibrations to accurately infer internal body temperatures. This work follows from a previous study on lacertid lizards to assess the reliability of thermography-measured body temperatures, from several body locations, as a proxy for internal body temperature in lizards. This study focuses on the Moorish gecko, Tarentola mauritanica, due to its distant phylogenetic relationship and its different ecology and morphology from the previously tested species. A total of 60 adult geckos of both sexes and of a range of sizes were tested in thermal gradients and subjected to a sequence of randomly assorted treatments of heating and cooling. The temperatures of the animals were periodically measured with a thermal camera at six different body parts and, immediately after, the cloacal temperature was then measured with a thermocouple probe. Body parts' temperatures, obtained thermographically, were regressed against cloacal temperature using OLS regression and the pairwise correlations were tested using Spearman coefficients. Relationships among all body parts and between all body parts and the cloaca were strong in all cases (R > 0.87, Spearman Correlation > 0.95). The observed pattern was very similar to those previously obtained from lacertid lizards. Ultimately, the eye proved to provide the best overall proxy for internal temperature, when accounting for both the slope and intercept of the regression. Hence, this study provides further support for the establishment of the eye as the standard location to infer internal body temperatures of lizards through thermography.
红外（IR）热成像已成为测量动物体温的一种越来越流行的工具。它提供的高分辨率数据具有短滞后和最小干扰，使其成为研究爬行动物热生态学的有吸引力的工具。然而，由于区域异温现象和表面到核心温度梯度很常见，因此选择适当的身体部位进行测量并提供校准以准确推断内部体温至关重要。这项工作是在前一项关于蜥蜴的研究的基础上进行的，该研究旨在评估从几个身体部位测量的热成像体温作为蜥蜴内部体温的替代值的可靠性。本研究专注于摩尔壁虎（Tarentola mauritanica），因为它与之前测试的物种具有较远的系统发育关系，并且在生态和形态上也有所不同。总共测试了 60 只成年雌雄大小不同的壁虎，它们处于热梯度中，并接受了一系列随机加热和冷却处理。使用热像仪定期在六个不同的身体部位测量动物的温度，然后立即使用热电偶探头测量泄殖腔温度。使用 OLS 回归将通过热成像获得的身体部位温度与泄殖腔温度进行回归，并用 Spearman 系数测试成对相关性。在所有情况下，所有身体部位之间以及所有身体部位与泄殖腔之间的关系都很强（R>0.87，Spearman 相关性>0.95）。观察到的模式与以前从蜥蜴中获得的模式非常相似。最终，眼睛在考虑回归的斜率和截距时，被证明是内部温度的最佳整体替代值。因此，这项研究为通过热成像建立眼睛作为推断蜥蜴内部体温的标准位置提供了进一步的支持。
