While out watching lizards last week with my undergraduate research assistant extraordinaire, Oliver Ljustina, and fellow SoFlo anole Ph.D. student Winter Beckles, we happened upon a pair of male crested anoles (Anolis cristatellus) ready to rumble! This is quite early – but not unheard of – in the season for the commencement of territorial disputes, so it was a surprise to see them locking horns so aggressively. This couple were battling fairly high in the tree, at approximately 3m.
Anyway, here are the pictures!
![IMG_5612[1]](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1603/24973410511_c2eee8971f_c.jpg?resize=629%2C420&ssl=1)
![IMG_5611[1]](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1624/24699126379_d365d22614_c.jpg?resize=629%2C420&ssl=1)
![IMG_5610[1]](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1445/24771217750_52b54cb15e_c.jpg?resize=629%2C420&ssl=1)
![IMG_5608[1]](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1684/25040596346_7995af2423_c.jpg?resize=629%2C420&ssl=1)
![IMG_5607[1]](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1663/25039699926_3d94c0c11d_c.jpg?resize=629%2C420&ssl=1)
![IMG_5626[1]](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1441/25039756456_14f5237702_c.jpg?resize=629%2C420&ssl=1)
![IMG_5616[1]](https://i0.wp.com/farm2.staticflickr.com/1595/24698893089_fb7259ab28_c.jpg?resize=629%2C420&ssl=1)
I am most interested in understanding how different species of lizards live together. Specifically, I research the ecological mechanisms that facilitate coexistence and the subsequent evolutionary consequences. I am a post-doc in the Losos Lab at Washington University in St. Louis. Website: www.jamesTstroud.com
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Brian Hillen
I saw the sign marking your study area in that large peninsula at Fairchild, was this there? or somewhere else?
James Stroud
Hi Brian, it wasn’t there but elsewhere in the Gardens. If you would ever like to meet and take a walk together I would be happy to! Feel free to email me: jamesTstroud (at) gmail.com
The body
Cool man!
Stephen Smitherman
Hi, great pictures. I have been trying to identify a pair of lizards unlike any I have seen previously in Gainesville FL. Your pictures of Anolis cristatellus are the closest I have found online, but there are a few (possibly insignificant) differences: 1) the white spots on the body of the Gainesville lizards appear more randomly distributed, as opposed to being arranged in longitudinal lines; 2) the bars around the mouths in your pictures were either absent or less noticeable on my lizards; 3) the overall body color of my lizards was darker, almost to the point of being black. Could these differences be simply within-species variations, or is there another species that might be a better match?
James T. Stroud
Huh, interesting! Feel free to email me a picture (jamesTstroud [at] gmail.com – I would be really interested in taking a look), or alternatively put together a post on here to get broader opinions. Cheers, James
Brian Hillen
I am 80% sure that these are crested anoles (based on dewlaps when I was taking the pictures), much darker as you say, are they closer to what you have seen?
http://cyclicalcore.deviantart.com/art/Crested-anole-stare-399087850
http://cyclicalcore.deviantart.com/art/Crested-Anoles-Mating-1-396184179
There is a lot of variation in color patterning among brown anoles so it is still possible that they were brown anoles up that far north, did you get a chance to see the dewlap? That is the easier differentiator between the species.