extra scute

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dds7155

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My leopard has an extra scute , would this be caused from higher incubation temp. or why? any one know.. it is smaller than the rest, also would it mean a higher chance to be female? [/align]
 

Baoh

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It is a developmental abnormality that can be induced by higher incubation temperatures. They can also occur at lower ones, but this may be less commonly observed. It is correlated to chance of being female, but no guarantee. There are many males with split scutes. There are many more animals that have split scutes that are female. Anyone giving you a specific frequency is going by feel instead of fact.
 

Katherine

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Many people attribute a split scute to a higher incubation temperature which would then correlate it with greater odds of being female. HOWEVER, I have only ever owned two split scute Leopard tortoises, both of them were male. I believe there was a thread on here the other day where Tom posted his split scute male as well. Not be the perpetual skeptic, but I have not personally read any peer reviewed studies showing a direct link with incubation temperature and split scutes, and until I do I can not be convinced that an extra scute can be used as a gender determinate...
 

Tortoise

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I have been told it occurs naturally in the wild too so maybe there are more variables or maybe its encouraged by higher incubation temps too. Sadly my little Jigsaw dies at Christmas but was very unique with missing scutes rather than extra.
 

Baoh

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To be clear, split scutes can occur at lower incubation temperatures, too. It just has not been noticed as often.
 

yagyujubei

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I had a box turtle hatch last year with a split scute, and it was incubated at the lower end temps.
Baoh said:
To be clear, split scutes can occur at lower incubation temperatures, too. It just has not been noticed as often.
 

Baoh

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yagyujubei said:
I had a box turtle hatch last year with a split scute, and it was incubated at the lower end temps.
Baoh said:
To be clear, split scutes can occur at lower incubation temperatures, too. It just has not been noticed as often.

Yeah, I have had some (not many) split scute animals result from male incubation temperatures across a few species.

I have also heard of some people having split scute animals frequently giving rise to split scute animals, but the numbers in those cases were small and far from definitive.
 
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