RELATIVE SIZE OF THE HEART IN LIOLAEMUS-LUTZAE MERTENS, 1938 (SAURIA,TROPIDURIDAE)

Liolaemus lutzae (sand lizard) is indigenous to the coast of the State of Rio de Janeiro and has been studied principally from ecological pe rspectives. The present paper concern the heart/body relationship. We used 29 adult animals (14 males) collected in the << restinga >> of Ba rra de Marica (Rio de Janeiro), none of which showed apparent signs of recent regeneration of the tail or pregnancy. The following parameter s were measured: body weight (BW in grams), rostrum-anal length (RAL i n millimeters) and cardiac weight (CW in grams). These data were compa red by the allometric method using the equation of the form Y = aX(b). The determinations are (males and females together): 1) CW = 1,21 . 1 0(-4) BW1,95; 2) CW = 1,14 . 10(-13) RAL5,85. Considering males and fe males isolate it was observed an important cardiac allometric sexual d imorphism. These original results are a contribution to the quantitati ve information concerning the heart of this reptile (scaling method).