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 (R2 > 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.

中文翻译：

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Tarentola mauritanica（Gekkota：Phyllodactylidae）的证据有助于验证热成像作为推断蜥蜴内部体温的工具

红外 (IR) 热成像已成为一种越来越流行的测量动物体温的工具。它提供的高分辨率数据具有短延迟和最小干扰，使其成为研究爬行动物热生态学的一个有吸引力的工具。然而，由于区域异温和表面到核心温度梯度的普遍现象，必须选择合适的身体部位进行测量并提供校准以准确推断内部体温。这项工作是在先前对蜥蜴蜥蜴进行的一项研究之后进行的，该研究旨在评估热成像测量体温的可靠性，从几个身体位置，作为蜥蜴内部体温的代表。这项研究的重点是摩尔壁虎 Tarentola mauritanica，由于其遥远的系统发育关系以及与之前测试的物种不同的生态和形态。在热梯度中测试了总共 60 只雌雄同体的成年壁虎，并进行了一系列随机分类的加热和冷却处理。用热像仪在六个不同的身体部位定期测量动物的温度，然后立即用热电偶探头测量泄殖腔温度。使用 OLS 回归将热成像获得的身体部位的温度与泄殖腔温度进行回归，并使用 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（R2 > 0.87，Spearman 相关性 > 0.95）。观察到的模式与以前从 lacerid 蜥蜴中获得的模式非常相似。最终，事实证明，在考虑回归的斜率和截距时，眼睛提供了内部温度的最佳整体代理。因此，这项研究为建立眼睛作为通过热成像推断蜥蜴内部体温的标准位置提供了进一步的支持。