The Huffington Post featured an article yesterday on our old friend [1,2,3], Anolis proboscis. In these pages, this species has been called the horned anole of Ecuador, but Huffpo, following a post two days earlier on Livescience, calls it the Pinocchio anole. You make the call.
The article is about a group of our friends at Tropical Herping finding some specimens of this little seen species. Huffpo’s title, “Pinocchio lizard rediscovered in Ecuador after being thought extinct for 50 years,” takes a few licenses, primarily because, as the article notes, the species has been seen a number of times since 2005, which was only 40 years or so after the previous sighting. Still, it’s nice to see anoles getting the attention.
And, more importantly, the article plugs the wonderful new book on the reptiles and amphibians of Mindo, written and lavishly illustrated by the Tropical Herping team. The book is available now in online format and will be for sale in hardcopy before long. Definitely worth checking out.
And late-breaking news: there’s a video as well!
- New Article on Anolis roosevelti and the Question of Its Survival - March 16, 2024
- Lizard Diving Champions: Trading Heat For Safety Underwater - March 15, 2024
- Do Large Brown Anoles Get the Most Mating Opportunities? - January 6, 2024
Omar Torres-Carvajal
I find the Huffington Post article somewhat misleading because it does not acknowledge explicitly all the work that has been done with Anolis proboscis during the last 6 years (see below) by Ecuadorian and American scientists. I am left with the impression that Tropical Herping is given too much credit for spotting once again this wonderful lizard. Here is a list of recent papers on Anolis proboscis:
Almendáriz, A. y C. Vogt. 2007. Anolis proboscis (Sauria: Polychrotidae), una lagartija rara pero no extinta. Politécnica 27 (Biología series 7):157-159.
YANEZ-MUNOZ, M. H., M. A. URGILES, B. M. ALTAMIRANO,AND S. R. CACERES. 2010. Redescripción de Anolis proboscis Peters & Orces (Reptilia: Polychrotidae), con el descubrimiento de las hembras de la especie y comentarios sobre su distribución y taxonomía. Avances, 3: B7–B15
Losos, J.B., Woolley, M.L., Mahler, D.L., O. Torres-Carvajal, K.E. Crandell, E.W. Schaad, A.E. Narváez, F. Ayala-Varela y A. Herrel. 2012. Notes on the Natural History of the Little Known Ecuadorian Horned Anole, Anolis proboscis. Breviora. 531:1–17.
POE, S., F. AYALA, I. M. LATELLA, T. L. KENNEDY, J. A. CHRISTENSEN, L. N. GRAY, N. J. BLEA, B. M. ARMIJO, AND E. W. SCHAAD. 2012. Morphology, phylogeny and behavior of Anolis proboscis. Breviora, 530: 1–11.
Torres-Carvajal, O. 2012. Los anolis cornudos de Mindo: un encuentro con lo bizarro. Nuestra Ciencia 14:21–23.
Jonathan Losos
This story has incredible legs, with posts all over cyberspace. Many are just reprints of the original articles, but here are several that are a little more in depth:
National Geographic Newswatch
Los Angeles Times
Las Vegas Guardian Express
Skip Lazell
Omar has it right: a bit misleading indeed! Hardly a new rediscovery. Skip