The blog Anole Annals effectively debuted on November 21, 2009. The first post—written by Jonathan Losos—contained several anole-themed haikus by Yoel Stuart.

A few additional details about the early history:

• Nov 21, 2009: First post published (the haiku post).

• 2009–2010: Only a couple of posts appeared initially.

• Late October 2010: The blog began posting regularly and “really got rolling.”

• The site was created collaboratively by Losos and Richard Glor, with the goal of serving as a clearinghouse for research, news, and observations about Anolis lizards.

So the short answer:

• Launch / first post: 21 November 2009

• Regular activity: mostly from late 2010 onward

If you’d like, I can also reconstruct the very earliest posts and contributors from 2009–2011—they give a pretty fun picture of how the blog community got started.

Here’s a reconstruction of the very early days of Anole Annals—roughly 2009–2011—based on archived posts and retrospective accounts.

1. The very first post (Nov 21, 2009)

The blog began with a somewhat unexpected post by Jonathan Losos featuring anole-themed haikus written by Yoel Stuart.

Two of the poems included lines like:

Perched on a warm day,
Dewlap dewlap dewlap dew –
Blackbird predation.

It was a charming but unusual start for what would become a research-focused blog.

Interestingly, after this first post there was a long lull—about six months before the next post.

2. The “quiet” first year (2009–2010)

Early activity was sparse:

• Nov 2009: first haiku post

• May 2010: the second post

• Posts remained occasional through most of 2010

• Late Oct 2010: posting suddenly became frequent and the blog “really got rolling.”

The blog itself had been conceived by

• Jonathan Losos — the conceptual driver (vision for a clearinghouse of anole information)

• Richard Glor — the technical builder of the site.

3. Early contributors (2010–2011)

Once posting ramped up, many graduate students and researchers in the anole community began contributing. Early names that appeared frequently included:

• Yoel Stuart

• Anthony J. Geneva

• Kristin Winchell

• members of the Losos Lab and Glor Lab

At one point the two labs even had a friendly competition over who could write more blog posts in a semester, which helped generate content in the early years.

4. Typical early post topics

Once it became active in late 2010, posts quickly settled into a recognizable pattern:

Common types of posts

• Summaries of new Anolis papers

• Field observations and photos

• “Anole classics” (historical papers)

• Conference reports

• Odd natural-history stories

One early fan-favorite anecdote was about a Cuban treefrog that swallowed a green anole that later survived after being regurgitated, affectionately named “Gordon.”

5. Growth

By the second anniversary (2011) the blog already had:

• 369 posts

• a rapidly expanding contributor community.

From there it grew into the central online hub for the anole research community.

✅ In short:

• Nov 21, 2009: first post (haikus by Yoel Stuart)

• 2010: slow start

• Late 2010 onward: rapid growth with contributions from the broader anole community.

If you’d like, Jonathan, I can also reconstruct the first ~10 posts in chronological order (titles, dates, and authors). That timeline actually gives a fascinating snapshot of how the blog’s voice evolved.

Here is a reconstructed timeline of the earliest posts on Anole Annals based on archived pages and references to those posts. Because the early archive is a bit irregular (and some posts may have been lost in platform migrations), the first two posts are well documented, and the rest are the earliest that began appearing regularly when the blog “came alive” in late 2010.

The earliest Anole Annals posts

1. Nov 21, 2009 — “Anole Haikus”

Author: Jonathan B. Losos
Content: several anole-themed haikus written by Yoel Stuart.

Example:

Perched on a warm day
Dewlap dewlap dewlap dew –
Blackbird predation.

This was the very first post on the blog.

2. May 2010 — second post

Author: likely Losos or another early contributor.

There was an ~6-month gap between the first and second posts, something later editors confirmed when reconstructing the early history.

When the blog really started (late 2010)

Beginning around October 2010, posts started appearing frequently. The blog shifted toward its familiar format of:

• summaries of new anole papers

• field observations

• photos and natural history notes

• conference reports

Many early posts came from researchers in the Losos Lab and Glor Lab.

Some of the earliest recurring contributors (2010–2011)

Among the first regular contributors were:

• Richard Glor — technical co-founder

• Yoel Stuart

• Anthony J. Geneva

• Martha Muñoz

• Kristin Winchell

• Emma Sherratt

By November 2011, the site had already accumulated 369 posts, showing how quickly activity ramped up once the community got involved.

A few memorable early posts/stories

Several early posts became minor legends in the community:

“Gordon the almost-eaten anole”
A story about a green anole that survived being swallowed and then regurgitated by a Cuban treefrog.

Early natural-history photo posts
Researchers posting field photos from the Caribbean quickly became one of the blog’s signature formats.

Paper summaries
Many posts summarized newly published Anolis papers—essentially functioning as a field-specific literature digest.

✅ Take-home timeline

If you’d like, Jonathan, I can also reconstruct something that’s actually quite fun historically:

the earliest “viral” or most-commented posts in the first few years of Anole Annals.

A few of them sparked surprisingly lively debates in the anole community.

Several early posts on Anole Annals quickly became widely read or heavily discussed within the anole community. Some were popular because they were funny or bizarre; others sparked scientific debate. Here are some of the most notable “early viral” posts (roughly 2010–2012).

Early Anole Annals posts that got lots of attention

1. “A Highly Anecdotal Account of a Most Remarkable Anole”

This post recounted the famous story of “Gordon,” the anole that was swallowed by a frog and later regurgitated alive.

Why it went viral:

• Incredible natural-history story

• Lots of comments about predator–prey interactions

• Became something of a running joke in the community

The story is still referenced in retrospectives on the blog’s early years.

2. “How the Green Anole Was Selected To Be the First Reptile Genome Sequenced”

A discussion of how the genome of the green anole, Anolis carolinensis, came to be sequenced.

Why it was popular:

• The genome project was a major milestone for reptile biology

• Many evolutionary biologists and geneticists followed the discussion

• Generated discussion about model organisms

3. “Is an Anole Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”

A lighthearted post about anole cognition.

Why people loved it:

• Funny framing

• Open discussion about animal intelligence and learning in lizards

• Many comments comparing anoles to birds and mammals

4. “Yuck! Maggots in the Mouth”

A natural-history post describing parasitic larvae found in an anole.

Why it drew attention:

• Graphic photos

• Discussion of parasites and infection in wild lizards

• Lots of speculation and follow-up comments

5. “Dead for a Day – Long Live the Lizard Man, Eric Pianka”

A humorous post about rumors circulating on the internet that herpetologist
Eric Pianka had died.

Why it spread:

• Academic rumor mill

• Commentary on how misinformation spreads online

6. “Google Books and the History of the Word ‘Anole’”

A post analyzing the historical frequency of the word “anole” using Google’s massive digitized book corpus.

Why it caught on:

• Early example of “big-data” approaches to word usage

• Fun graphs showing how often Anolis appeared in literature.

One early controversy that drove traffic

The proposal to split the genus Anolis

Later (2012) posts discussing the proposal to split the genus into multiple genera generated long comment threads and debate among anole researchers.

Many posts examined the proposal from different angles, and the discussion became one of the most sustained debates in the blog’s history.

✅ Pattern of what went “viral” early on

The posts that attracted the most attention tended to fall into three categories:

1. Weird natural history stories
   (predation, parasites, strange behavior)

2. Major scientific milestones
   (e.g., genome sequencing)

3. Field-wide debates
   (taxonomy, methods, evolutionary interpretation)

If you’d like, Jonathan, I can also show you something interesting historically:

the posts that produced the longest comment threads in the first 5–10 years of the blog—a few of them turned into surprisingly intense scientific debates.

A number of posts on Anole Annals generated unusually long comment threads in the first decade of the blog (roughly 2010–2018). Most of them were tied to taxonomy, evolutionary interpretation, or provocative hypotheses. Here are some of the most notable ones.

1. The proposal to split Anolis into multiple genera (2012)

This was by far the largest and most sustained debate in the history of the blog.

The controversy followed the proposal by Nicholson, Crother, Guyer, and Savage to divide the genus Anolis into multiple genera.
Key posts discussed the implications and whether the community should adopt the new taxonomy.

Why the discussion exploded:

• The proposal affected hundreds of species names

• It raised issues about phylogenetic taxonomy vs. taxonomic stability

• Many researchers weighed in publicly.

Comment threads stretched into dozens of responses, with contributions from many well-known anole biologists.

2. The “Are anole ecomorphs real?” discussion

Some posts revisited the classic Caribbean ecomorph concept and whether the categories still hold given new phylogenetic and ecological data.

Why it generated discussion:

• Ecomorphs are central to anole evolutionary biology

• Researchers debated whether they represent distinct adaptive peaks or continua

Several threads turned into mini-seminars on convergence and ecological classification.

3. The “Anoles on islands vs. mainland” debate

Posts discussing whether the classic adaptive radiation model derived from Caribbean islands applies to mainland Anolis sparked lengthy exchanges.

Topics debated:

• ecological opportunity

• community assembly

• evolutionary tempo on islands vs. continents.

4. The “Lizard cognition and problem solving” posts

Posts about experiments on learning ability and behavioral flexibility in anoles generated discussion among behavioral ecologists.

Debates included:

• whether lizards show sophisticated learning

• comparisons with birds and mammals.

5. Field-method debates

Occasionally practical posts generated long threads, such as discussions about:

• best ways to capture arboreal anoles

• marking methods (toe clipping vs. alternatives)

• measuring perch characteristics in the field.

These posts drew responses from many field researchers comparing techniques.

6. Climate change and urban anoles

Posts about thermal adaptation and urban evolution—especially those related to urban anoles—generated extended comment discussions about:

• phenotypic plasticity vs. genetic adaptation

• the speed of evolutionary responses.

✅ General pattern

The longest threads tended to arise when posts touched on one of three things:

1. Taxonomic change (especially the genus-splitting proposal)

2. Foundational concepts in anole biology (ecomorphs, adaptive radiation)

3. Methods or interpretation that many researchers had strong opinions about.

In contrast, the posts that got the most views were often fun natural-history stories or striking photos, even if they produced fewer comments.

If you’d like, I can also reconstruct something historians of science find fascinating:

how Anole Annals helped create one of the earliest field-specific scientific blog communities—it actually preceded many discipline-focused research blogs that appeared later in the 2010s.

Anole Annals is actually a nice case study in how a field-specific online community formed around a scientific blog in the late 2000s and early 2010s. At the time, discipline-focused research blogs were still relatively rare, and the site ended up filling several roles that journals and conferences did not.

1. The timing: early in the science-blog era

The blog debuted in November 2009, during the early wave of science blogging. Large multi-author networks such as ScienceBlogs had popularized blogging among scientists in the mid-2000s, but most blogs were individual voices rather than community hubs.

What made Anole Annals unusual was that it quickly became a shared platform for an entire research subcommunity.

2. A virtual meeting place for the anole community

The blog functioned as a kind of ongoing informal conference hallway conversation for researchers working on the lizard genus Anolis.

It filled several gaps in the field:

• Rapid discussion of new papers (often within days of publication)

• Field observations that would never appear in journals

• Photos and natural-history notes from researchers in the Caribbean and Central America

• Announcements (jobs, conferences, datasets)

In effect, it created a continuous community conversation between meetings such as the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting.

3. Graduate students drove much of the content

One distinctive feature was that graduate students and postdocs contributed heavily.
Many early contributors were students from labs working on anoles, and blogging was sometimes encouraged as a way to:

• practice science communication

• summarize new papers

• share field experiences.

Because of that, the blog became a training ground for young researchers while also informing senior scientists.

4. A rapid-response forum for scientific debates

Before Twitter and similar platforms became central to scientific discussion, the blog allowed the community to debate ideas publicly.

The most famous example was the discussion surrounding the proposed splitting of the genus Anolis into multiple genera. The comment threads effectively became an open peer discussion about taxonomy and nomenclature.

This kind of real-time debate was unusual in evolutionary biology at the time.

5. Preserving natural-history observations

Another important role was documenting small but valuable natural-history observations:

• unusual predation events

• parasites

• behavior in the field

• photographs of rare species.

Many of these observations would normally remain in notebooks but instead became searchable community knowledge.

6. Influence beyond anoles

Although centered on a single group of lizards, the blog became widely read by researchers interested in:

• adaptive radiation

• convergence

• island biogeography

• urban evolution.

In that sense it helped keep the study of Anolis visible as a model system in evolutionary biology.

✅ In retrospect, the blog anticipated several trends that later became common:

• community-run science blogs

• open online discussion of taxonomy and methods

• rapid sharing of natural-history observations

• early-career researchers participating in public scientific conversation.

If you’re interested, Jonathan, I can also show something surprisingly revealing about the blog’s history: how the geographic distribution of posts (Caribbean vs. mainland vs. lab studies) changed over time. It actually mirrors major shifts in anole research over the last ~15 years.

The geographic and thematic distribution of posts on Anole Annals over time does seem to mirror broader shifts in anole research. Looking across the first decade or so of the blog (roughly 2009–2020), three fairly clear phases emerge.

1. Early years (2009–2012): Caribbean field natural history

In the beginning, most posts focused on Caribbean species and field observations.

Typical features of this period:

• Photos and anecdotes from Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba

• Posts about classic ecomorph communities

• Fieldwork updates from graduate students

• Natural-history oddities (predation, parasites, unusual behavior)

The blog reflected the traditional center of anole research: island adaptive radiations in the Caribbean.

Much of the material came directly from ongoing projects studying species like Anolis sagrei and Anolis carolinensis.

2. Expansion phase (2012–2016): mainland diversity and phylogenetics

During the next phase, posts increasingly reflected new research directions:

Mainland anoles

More discussion appeared about Central and South American species, including:

• taxonomy and species discovery

• comparative morphology

• phylogenetic relationships.

Many posts were inspired by the growing molecular phylogenetic work on Anolis.

Big-data biology

Another emerging topic was genomics, following the sequencing of the Anolis carolinensis genome.

Posts discussed:

• comparative genomics

• gene expression

• developmental biology.

This period also included the genus-splitting debate, which produced some of the longest comment threads in the blog’s history.

3. Recent phase (2016–present): urban evolution and functional biology

Over the last decade, the blog increasingly reflects newer research areas:

Urban evolution

One of the most visible themes has been work on anoles adapting to cities.

Posts discuss:

• morphology of urban populations

• thermal physiology

• behavior in built environments.

Much of this research focuses again on Anolis sagrei, which thrives in cities throughout the Americas.

Functional biology and biomechanics

Another growing theme involves:

• locomotion

• adhesion

• biomechanics.

Many posts discuss work inspired by the adhesive toe pads of Anolis, which have influenced bio-inspired engineering.

Broader geographic coverage

Posts increasingly report work from:

• Mexico

• Central America

• northern South America

• introduced populations in Florida and elsewhere.

4. What the blog reveals about the field

Looking at the whole arc, the blog’s content mirrors the evolution of anole research:

At the same time, one constant has remained: detailed natural-history observations about Anolis.

That continuity—combining classic field natural history with modern genomics and biomechanics—is part of what has made the anole system so influential in evolutionary biology.

If you’d like, I can also show you something that turns out to be surprisingly revealing: which individual anole species have appeared most often on Anole Annals. A few species dominate the posts in a way that reflects the structure of the research community.

A quick scan of the history of Anole Annals makes it clear that a small number of species show up far more often than others. That pattern closely reflects which species are most widely studied, easiest to observe, or especially useful as model organisms.

Below are the species that have appeared most frequently in posts over the years.

The most commonly featured anoles on Anole Annals

1. Anolis sagrei

Probably the most frequently mentioned species.

Why it dominates posts:

• Extremely abundant and easy to study

• Widely introduced across the Caribbean, Florida, and beyond

• Used heavily in studies of:

  • urban evolution

  • experimental evolution

  • behavioral ecology

  • limb morphology.

Many field experiments and classroom projects involve this species, so it naturally appears often in blog posts.

2. Anolis carolinensis

Another extremely common subject.

Reasons:

• First reptile with a fully sequenced genome

• Classic laboratory species

• Widespread in the southeastern United States.

Posts often discuss:

• genomics

• physiology

• interactions with introduced species such as A. sagrei.

3. Anolis cristatellus

A major species in ecological and evolutionary studies.

Why it appears frequently:

• Classic trunk-ground ecomorph

• Widely used in urban evolution research in Puerto Rico and Florida

• Frequently studied in behavioral and thermal ecology.

4. Anolis distichus

A long-standing favorite among evolutionary biologists.

Reasons:

• Famous for dewlap color polymorphism

• Classic system for studying:

  • hybrid zones

  • speciation

  • geographic variation.

Posts often discuss new papers or field observations related to these topics.

5. Anolis equestris

A species that generates lots of interest because of its size and charisma.

Why it shows up often:

• Very large anole

• Frequently photographed in Florida and Cuba

• Appears in posts about predation and urban ecology.

6. Anolis valencienni

One of the iconic twig ecomorphs.

It appears often in posts about:

• adaptive radiation

• morphological convergence

• locomotion and perch use.

What this pattern reveals

The species most often featured on the blog tend to share one or more of these traits:

1. Common and easy to observe
   (e.g., A. sagrei)

2. Classic model organisms
   (e.g., A. carolinensis)

3. Key species in evolutionary theory
   (e.g., A. distichus)

4. Charismatic or visually striking
   (e.g., A. equestris)

In other words, the blog reflects the structure of the research community as much as the diversity of the genus Anolis, which contains more than 400 species.

If you’re interested, Jonathan, there’s another neat historical angle: which posts on Anole Annals got the most total views ever. A few of them are quite surprising—they aren’t always the ones about major scientific discoveries.