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Turtles Are Not Just Walking Stones: Conspicuous Coloration and Sexual Selection in Freshwater Turtles

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Abstract

Turtles are among the most intriguing amniotes but their communication and signaling have rarely been studied. Traditionally, they have been seen as basically just silent armored ‘walking stones’ with complex physiology but no altruism, maternal care, or aesthetic perception. Recently, however, we have witnessed a radical change in the perception of turtle behavioral and cognitive skills. In our study, we start by reviewing some recent findings pertaining to various highly developed behavioral and cognitive patterns with special emphasis on turtles. Then we focus on freshwater turtles and use data about their sexual behavior and size sexual dimorphism (SSD) to test whether conspicuous coloration of the head is in these animals related to sexual processes. We found that absence of aggressive mating behavior is statistically associated with the presence of conspicuous coloration on turtles’ heads. It also seems that while species with female-biased SSD are characterised by conspicuously colored head ornaments, in species with male-biased SSD conspicuous coloration is absent. Unlike large females, males thus seem to be under pressure to develop conspicuous coloration and engage in non-aggressive behavior using signaling to succeed in courtship. And finally, we discuss possible roles of head color patterns in turtle communication during mating.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Servicio de Vida Silvestre, D.G. Medi Natural de la Generalitat Valenciana and their project ‘Strategy and proven techniques for the eradication of freshwater invaders’, project ‘LIFE-Trachemys’ (LIFE09 NAT/ES000529), for their kind collaboration and for providing us with space for thinking. Further, we owe our thanks to Lucie Čermáková for drawing the illustrations of turtles’ heads. Our research was supported by the Czech Grant Agency project GACR P505/11/1459. We dedicate this publication in memoriam to Prof. Vojtěch Jarošík.

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  1. Department of Philosophy and History of Sciences, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Viničná 7, Prague 2, 120 00, Czech Republic

    Jindřich Brejcha & Karel Kleisner

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  1. Jindřich Brejcha
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  2. Karel Kleisner
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Correspondence to Jindřich Brejcha.

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Brejcha, J., Kleisner, K. Turtles Are Not Just Walking Stones: Conspicuous Coloration and Sexual Selection in Freshwater Turtles. Biosemiotics 9, 247–266 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-015-9249-9

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