Does the development environment cause the pace of life to change in a rainforest lizard?

Life history theory emphasizes that finite resources result in allocation trade-offs among the competing interests of self-maintenance, growth, reproduction, and survival. Environmental conditions, particularly during development, can influence these life history trade-offs, leading to the coupling of physiological and behavioural traits with life history strategies. Thus, populations may vary in the pattern of trait covariation, clustering along a fast-slow continuum, termed the extended pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) theory. We aimed to test how variation in ecological conditions influence life history trade-offs and their association with behaviour and physiology by comparing captive bred and wild-collected southern rainforest sunskink (Lampropholis similis). The captive bred skinks were the offspring of the wild-caught skinks, and all tests were conducted in the laboratory. We found that the groups differed, on average, in growth rate, body condition, thermal preferences, sprint performance, and activity. Counter to our expectation, wild-caught skinks exhibited a faster pace of life relative to captive-bred skinks despite experiencing more challenging environmental conditions. Furthermore, life history trade-offs were not detected, nor were traits correlated to form the syndrome. Studies are needed to identify the proximate mechanisms causing life history trade-offs and how they lead to the coupling, or decoupling, of physiological and behavioural traits. Such information will provide vital insight into how ecological forces drive the evolution of traits.