Periodically, AA has featured reports on finding three-legged lizards in nature (1,2). And here’s another one, briefly detained on a recent field trip to Abaco. Loss of her hindfoot doesn’t seem to be troubling her too much; heck, she’s even gravid!
Turns out that three-legged lizards pop up all the time. I’ve decided to put together a compilation of the little tricyclers. If you have any information on a three-legged lizard–a photo or more, such as measurements of mass, survival, or sprint performance–I’d love to know about it. Please contact me at jlosos@oeb.harvard.edu.
Professor of Biology and Director of the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in Saint Louis. I've spent my entire professional career studying anoles and have discovered that the more I learn about anoles, the more I realize I don't know.
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Tony Gamble
Here is a photo of an Anolis carolinensis from Kona, Hawaii missing a front foot.
Pete Zani
I’ve seen three-legged lizards several times while working on side-blotched lizards, Uta stansburiana. This one I caught in the fall of 2010 as a young-of-the-year lizard. Never saw it again.
Lilly Miller
I used to have a three- legged anole. The process was: broke his wrist. It heals up. A huge, deep cut appears so deep you can see the bone. Shedding problems occur, so his whole hand falls off almost to the elbow.
Levi Gray
Here’s pic of a female Anolis sericeus in northern Chiapas.
Jonathan Losos
Cool!
Kristin Winchell
I’ve come across only one 3 legged anole in over 1200 from Puerto Rico. He did not survive the 4 month period between marking and recapturing, although the stump looked pretty well healed at the time of capture. I can send along X-ray, mass etc. if still interested in this.