Where do you work and what do you do?  

I live in Austin, Texas, where I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin. From 2015 – 2018 I was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, and I received my PhD in Biology from Stanford University in 2015. 

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

I am broadly interested in using the fossil record to understand how species are impacted by past instances of environmental perturbations, such as climate change, seal-level fluctuations, and human colonization. By understanding how different organisms responded to environmental change, I can make predictions about which species may thrive and which species may be threatened under current and future instances of environmental change.  

I apply this broad framework to ancient lizard communities in the Caribbean, where anoles are key players. I’ve learned that compared to other lizard species that also occur in the Caribbean, like the curly-tails (Leiocephalus), anoles are very resilient when facing environmental changes. They have a significantly lower rate of extinction than other Caribbean lizards, and I have documented cases where their abundances increase substantially after the extinction of other lizard species in their community. I have also learned that the distributional ranges of different anole species have changed over time, and I am in the process of determining if those range shifts coincide with changes in the environment, such as forest cover. 

To accomplish this, I spend a lot of time in the field and in museum collections. I conduct paleontological excavations in search of new fossil deposits on islands such as Puerto Rico and Marie-Galante (a small overseas French territory in the Lesser Antilles). These fossils are pretty young by paleontological standards (typically 30,000 years old or younger) but they are great for the Caribbean, where fossil deposits are rare due to the hot, humid, weather that prevents fossil preservation. What is also great about this time period is that the environmental changes that took place more closely reflect ongoing environmental changes, and many of these sites document the arrival of indigenous and European human populations into the Caribbean, so we can see what communities looked like before humans arrived and also afterwards. In the museum, I use previously collected modern specimens of anoles to help identify the fossils I find in the field, and I also utilize previously collected fossils from different paleontological site in order to compare ecological and evolutionary patterns across space and time. 

How and why did you start studying anoles? 

Although I had known that I wanted to be a researcher for quite some time growing up, I never thought that I would be studying anoles! I came into graduate school with a background in paleontology, phylogeography, and island biogeography. I had experience with herps (amphibians and reptiles), but I did not consider myself a herpetologist. All I really wanted to do was synthesize my passions for paleontology and conservation with my interests in molecular biology and evolutionary ecology. Right before I started graduate school at Stanford, Dr. Joan Roughgarden gave my PhD advisor some anole paleontological samples. Because of my interests and background, we though that these materials would be perfect for addressing the research questions that I wanted to tackle, and boy were we right! Additionally, those materials opened my eyes to a whole new world of research that I had not encountered before.   

What do you love most about studying anoles? 

I love that anoles are amenable to studying a diversity of biological questions! Anole research runs the gamut from behavioral, physiological, phylogenetic, developmental, genomic, to ecological and beyond. As a result, there is a rich literature on anoles that helps to contextualize the research that people like me want to do. Despite all of this knowledge, there is still so much that we don’t know, too. Anoles are also very charismatic to watch in the field and the people who study anoles are a great group. It helps to be in a supportive, intellectually diverse, and curious research community. The anole research community, which spans the globe, is that and more! 

What is your favorite anole species? 

This is a tough question because there are so many anoles out there! I spent a lot of time working on anoles in the Lesser Antilles and I think that they are particularly enigmatic and don’t always get the attention that they deserve. The most beautiful species that I have ever seen in person is Anolis marmoratus, a species only found on the island of Guadeloupe. There are different color morphs on different parts of the island.   

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

Twitter: @Melisabetta

Website: www.melissakemp.com

Follow me at
Latest posts by Anthony J Geneva (see all)