Recently, we had a post on the cool bark anole embryo photographs produced by Catherine May at Arizona State. Catherine has now done this one better by producing a series of photographs, along with explanatory text, detailing the process by which skeletal preparations are made via the old method of clearing-and-staining. As the photo reveals, the resulting products are not only scientifically informative, but quite beautiful. And while on the topic of anole skeletal preparation, check out Thom Sanger’s Halloween-themed post on the same from 2011.
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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Thomas Sanger
Thanks for the shout-out Jonathan.
I wanted to make a quick comment about clearing and staining anole embryos; it can get tricky. The acidic alcian blue stain can leach the calcium from early bones leading to incomplete alizarin staining. Over clearing can also lead to complete loss of the specimen if not watched carefully. I have used the same protocol for C&S as Catherine as well as an acid-free protocol where the pH remains close to neutral. For embryos up to around the time of hatching I much prefer the acid-free protocol as it provides consistently cleaner prep. than the alternative.
You can catch examples of my limb preparations and reference to the protocols in one of my previous posts:
https://www.anoleannals.org/2011/08/18/growing-limbs-but-not-the-kind-with-leaves/