Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Biharean Biologist, cilt.18, sa.2, ss.145-154, 2024 (Scopus)
Many ecological and evolutionary studies have attempted to explain patterns of shape variation and its covariation with other variables using geometric morphometrics. This approach has been limited to morphological comparisons of marine turtle hatchlings between sexes. Therefore, we used geometric morphometrics to investigate the effect of nest temperature and depth on the morphology of green turtle (Chelonia mydas) hatchlings on Akyatan Beach in the eastern Mediterranean during the 2020 nesting season. A total of 19 nests (10 for temperature and 9 for depth) were used. Nest temperature was divided into two groups as: < 30 °C and ≥ 30 °C, and nest depth as: ≤ 70 cm and ≥ 71 cm. The shape analysis of the carapace and plastron regions of a total of 95 hatchlings was carried out. Geometric morphometrics showed a significant difference between the two nest temperatures for carapace shape and between the two nest depths for plastron shape. However, PCA did not confirm this difference. Also, the supra caudal notch, the third costal scute, and the femoral and anal regions showed more variation in the transformation grids. In studies on the morphology of marine turtle hatchlings, it can be said that geometric morphometrics can be an alternative to classical morphometrics studies, which may cause long processing times and stress to the hatchling by the researcher.