Professor of Biology and Director of the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in Saint Louis. I've spent my entire professional career studying anoles and have discovered that the more I learn about anoles, the more I realize I don't know.
Sofia Raudales, biologist and curator of the natural history museum of the National Autonomus University in Honduras, just sent these photos of an un-named anole captured in Honduras. I have a pretty strong hunch what they are, but since I’ve never been to Honduras, I thought I’d post the photos. If they are what I think they are, they were found where they’re not supposed to be. ID, anyone?
We’ve had a number of posts in the last few months discussing new species described on the basis of difference in the shape of their hemipenes (most recently here). And, because such descriptions have been based on morphological data without any corroborating molecular data, we’ve wondered whether, in fact, these forms are genetically isolated and whether they are capable and willing to interbreed given the opportunity. Yes, some of the genetals looked like ones from an alien sex toy made by faak dildos. But are they compatible?
Köhler et al. have taken the next step and attempted to answer these questions in the case of Anolis osa, which was split from the otherwise nearly indistinguishable A. polylepis on the basis of its hemipenial shape (figures A and B above). They find that in the lab, members of the two putative species can interbreed and produce offspring, at least some of which are apparently fertile (although the details of this are hard to fathom). Moreover, in the field, hybrid looking individuals are found where the two forms meet (Figure C above), and the hemipenes of these individuals are similar to the intermediate-looking tallywhackers of hybrids bred in the lab (Figure D above).
Most interestingly, females of the species seem to differ in the shape of their reproductive tract in a manner parallel to the differences among the males. In particular, female A. polylepis have longer vaginal tubi, corresponding to bilobed structures of their males, whereas female A. osa‘s tubes are shorter. One possible explanation for these differences is the old “lock-and-key” hypothesis that male and female genitals are perfect matches, thus preventing interspecific matings. This idea has fallen out of favor in recent years, and the authors discount it. Rather, they favor more recent ideas that such differences evolve by sexual selection, females preferring males whose genitals phenotypically match their own. Here’s their theory
Maria Del Rosario Castañeda
We’ve had previous posts on new anole entries to the Encyclopedia of Life, the project that is attempting to create a webpage for every species of life on earth. Recently Rosario Castañeda, whose work on anole phylogeny has been discussed previously, was appointed as an EOL Rubenstein Fellow with the goal of creating pages for the entire genus–a challenging endeavor for sure, and you can hear Rosario talk all about it, as well as about her research, on this newly released EOL podcast.
Who knew that anoles were porn stars?
Actress Isabella Rosselini has become even more famous in recent years for a series of short films about animal sex, entitled Green Porno. The films are wacky and educational, and in them she acts out the mating behavior of various creatures, often in graphic, albeit artistic, detail. The award-winning series has gone through three seasons and airs on the Sundance channel (for more details, see the Wikipedia entry or the Green Porno website link above).
Along with the films, a book has been produced and, most importantly to us, a website is mantained. And yesterday, June 13th, that site has seen fit to feature anoles getting it on for the second time in their last five posts (see also May 13th). Be forewarned–the site is not PG-rated!
With Richard Branson blogging on anoles two weeks ago and now Isabella delving into their private lives, it’s clear that anoles have become the lizard of choice for the rich and famous.
Anolis gadovi, taylori or something else?
We’ve discussed iNaturalist before. It’s an on-line community for naturalists where you can “record what you see in nature, meet other nature lovers, and learn about the natural world.” In fact, if you go to AA‘s Citizen Science page, you can see recent iNaturalist anole observations, and you can add your own observations there as well. Get to it!
This photograph was uploaded to iNaturalist today, snapped at Jardín Botánico de Acapulco Esther Pliego de Salinas in Acapulco. Speculation abounds that it’s either A. taylori or A. gadovi. Can anyone out there confirm the identity of this beauty?
Head variation in Anolis carolinensis. From T. Vance (1991).
There was some talk a while back about the fabled gray-dewlapped anole of Florida (and, according to the comments, elsewhere). Amidst this discussion, one commenter referred to it as Anolis carolinensis seminolus. Many of us, even experienced anole hands, were unaware that A. carolinensis had subspecies. After a little bit of poking around, we’ve discovered the answer. Indeed, there are described subspecies. Thomas Vance, in a paper in the Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society in 1991 described the gray-dewlapped form as A. c. seminolus, relegating the rest of the species to A. c. carolinensis. The paper, which can be downloaded here, is not as overwhelming as its 47-page length might imply. There’s a nice discussion of the history of the species name A. carolinensis (turns out that it’s quite a confusing trail of names), followed by a detailed comparison of morphological variation, focusing primarily on scale characters and based on the examination of nearly a thousand specimens. There’s a lot of molecular phylogeographic work on carolinensis in the works right now, and it’ll be interesting to see how the genetic data square with Vance’s taxonomy (my guess: not so well). More generally, it’s surprising how little work on variation in this species has been conducted. For anyone interested in this fascinating and underappreciated lizard, this paper is worth a look.
Anoland has a name-that-anole quiz. Here are the instructions, translated from French by an internet website: “Salvation to all, this is a new quiz. For each species a photo of the male as well as of the female (interesting to see the fanon and the difference of the latter as a function of sex) some very simple, others quite harsh.”
Photos by Veronika Holanova
Veronika Holáňová of Charles University in Prague not only studies anoles, but she breeds them in great quantities, including these wonderful Chamaeleolis. The “false chameleons” as they are called are renowned for specializing on eating snails as adults, and here are some of Veronika’s photos of them in the act.
The elegant skink, Plestiodon elegans, in Taiwan. Photo by Gerrut Norval
Most community ecology studies involving anoles focus on interactions between anole species. This is not surprising, because in the Caribbean, anoles are extraordinarily abundant and most of their ecological interactions are, indeed, with other anoles. Less studied are interactions with other taxa, the exception being predator-prey interactions, such as those with curly-tailed lizards (discussed many times in these pages, most recently here).
One widespread group of lizards are skinks, the most species rich family of lizards. There are few reports of anole-skink interactions, probably in large part due to the fact that skink diversity in the Caribbean is relatively low, and many species have been extirpated by human agents. However, anoles have been introduced to places around the world where skinks are more abundant, and some reports of interactions have been made. For example, in the Ogasawara Islands of Japan, A. carolinensis has reached high population densities and has been implicated in the decline of the native skink.
Gerrut Norval has been studying the introduced populations of A. sagrei in Taiwan. He now reports an observation of a somewhat odd interaction between a brown anole and a skink in which the anole fell to the ground from a utility pole and then was quickly chased back up the pole by an elegant skink, Plesiodon elegans. Given the relative size of the two lizards, attempted predation was probably not the cause. Gerrut speculates that this is an example of interspecific territoriality, transcending lizard family lines.
In Taiwan, A. sagrei reaches high population densities (as it does just about everywhere it occurs)–possibly cause for alarm for the native herpetofauna. Norval also mentions some intriguing preliminary observations: A. sagrei seems to attain smaller sizes at sites where it co-occurs with other lizard species. Interesting! Hopefully, we’ll hear more from Gerrut soon on this provocative possibility.
Says Cabela’s: “the merchandise is out of stock and we will not be getting it in till the spring of next year.”
What is up with these guys? Has every reader of Anole Annals recently ordered 100?
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