Reproductive life-history modes can broadly be described as ranging from oviparity with little or no parental care to viviparity with parental care, and a variety of intermediate forms (Lodé 2012). Finally, we highlight knowledge gaps and suggest future research directions. We explore how incubation conditions drive variation in hatchling phenotypes and influence adult populations. We examine how these variables influence one another and consider how changes in each variable alters incubation conditions and thus, hatchling phenotypes. To address this knowledge gap, we review the literature on phenotypic responses in oviparous non-squamate (i.e., turtles, crocodilians and tuataras) reptile hatchlings to temperature, moisture, oxygen concentration and salinity. Understanding how the external environment influences development is important for species management and requires identifying how environmental variables exert their effects individually, and how they interact to affect developing embryos. While recent research and reviews have focused on temperature during incubation, emerging evidence suggests other environmental variables are also important in determining hatchling phenotypes. Developing embryos of oviparous reptiles show substantial plasticity in their responses to environmental conditions during incubation, which can include altered sex ratios, morphology, locomotor performance and hatching success.
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