Where do you work and what do you do? 

I am Boricua, and currently an Associate Professor in the Division of Biological Sciences at University of Missouri, Columbia. I have been extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with many talented undergraduate and graduate students that have joined my lab ( Chipojo Lab) and helped me study anoles across the Caribbean. I also had amazing mentors (Richard Thomas, Javier Rodrígues-Robez, Jonathan B. Losos, and Leo J. Fleishman), all willing (may be my stubbornness contributed to their will) to take a risk and allow me to explore ideas regardless of how little sense they made at the time.

What aspects of anole biology do you study, and what have you learned?

As a natural historian, I have established an integrative research program that reflects my interest in developing an intimate understanding of the behavior, ecology, and physiology of anoles under natural conditions, with the ultimate goal of elucidating evolutionary processes. I encourage all members of my lab to follow a similar approach. 

Over 30+ years of studying anoles in their natural habitats, I have learned two fundamental lessons: expect the unexpected and that there is no such a thing as “a stupid question” when the question is derived from observations made in nature. Following this approach, my lab has been able to reveal some unexpected behaviors in anoles, including displaying to predators to deter an attack; finding their way home from distances several order of magnitudes larger than the size of their territories. If that was not unexpected, who would have predicted that anoles would be able to solve novel problems similar to those solved by birds and mammals. Or that anoles would be capable of modulating the properties of their signals to compensate for variation in the distance to potential receivers under the complex conditions of a tropical forest. 

Finally, it is impossible to work with anoles and fail to recognize the incredible diversity of dewlap coloration found in the genus. I’ve been lucky enough, with a few of my colleagues, to provide a potential explanation for this diversity by demonstrating experimentally that dewlap spectral properties (i.e., coloration) are shaped by selection favoring detection by conspecifics under the specific light conditions of the micro-habitat most commonly used by the species. Furthermore, we have shown that selection can favor changes in morphological and physiological traits over ecological time-scale.  

How and why did you start studying anoles?

Growing up in Puerto Rico my interests in the natural history of anoles began during my childhood. I remember vividly catching anoles around my house, and holding them with a noose made out of the stem of grass tied around their waist. I would then place the anoles in close proximity to observe how they displayed to each other. At the time I had no idea how many species of anoles were found in Puerto Rico. However, I learned that if I held two lizards that had similar appearance close together, they usually would display and even fight. Yet, if I did the same with a “brown one” (A. cristatellus) and a “yellow one” (A. pulchellus), they rarely fought. Little did I know that these early observations would come full circle when I was an undergraduate at University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, working in the laboratory of Richard Thomas. In Richard’s lab I met Javier Rodríguez-Robles, who was working on the feeding behavior of the snake Alsophis portoricencesis. Javier invited me to help him with his research, and while doing so, I observed that anoles also displayed to snakes. This observation became the foundation for my graduate research as I pursued both MS and Ph.D. degrees.      

What do you love most about studying anoles?

There is plenty to like about working with anoles. First and foremost is the ability to study them under natural conditions. Many species can be relatively easy to study in the field, allowing one to ask and answer questions under conditions relevant to their biology. A close second is the diversity found in this group, which provides a unique opportunity to study questions at multiple levels (i.e., the individual, population, and community). Finally, anoles are naturally charismatic creatures, which is great for my other passion-photography and science outreach. I find it incredibly rewarding to bring an anole to a classroom of kids or to share my photos and videos of lizards and to see the interests they spark in the kids. It’s even more rewarding when I overhear someone exclaim “what amazing and intriguing behaviors those little lizards have!”   

What is your favorite anole species?

I don’t have a favorite anole species. Instead, I have a favorite anole genus — Chamaeleolis, which is endemic to Cuba. Cubans commonly refer to members of this genus as “Chipojo bobo” due to their sluggish appearance. As a kid my Dad told me stories of a big gray arboreal lizard, with a disproportionally big head and that walks very slowly. He called them “chipojos” and lamented the fact that they were not found in Puerto Rico. It is not a coincidence that my lab is known as the Chipojo Lab, a name that recognizes the Cuban roots of my family and also reflects my favorite group of anoles. I was very lucky that I was able to study the behavior of two species of Chipojo bobo, C. barbatus and C. porcus, as part of fieldwork that I did in Cuba in 1997 and 1999. It should be noted that Chipojo bobos are greatly understudied, with only a handful of studies describing their natural history.   

Where can people learn more about you and follow you online?

Website: Chipojo Lab

Blog:  Chipojolab Blog

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