Author: Jonathan Losos Page 128 of 133

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.

Anolis princeps sawing logs in Ecuador.

There have been a number of posts recently discussing various aspects of the sleeping biology of anoles (e.g., here, here, and here). Anoles spend 1/3 to 1/2 of their lives asleep, so it is not surprising that there is a small cottage industry of research papers describing where they sleep, in what position, and with whom. The most recent addition to this genre is a very nice paper on A. uniformis in Mexico, which reveals that this species is typical in sleeping on leaves with its body in line with the long axis of the leaf. The paper includes a brief, but thorough review of the literature on anole sleeping and thus is a good entrée to the literature.

A somewhat less brief review of the literature might go something like this

Visualizing Anole Convergence in Morphospace

By Jonathan Losos

On March 15, 2011

In New Research

Evolution of species in a two-dimensional morphospace. Axes are from a principal components analysis of morphology; symbols represent different ecomorph classes.

Over on the Phytools blog, anole biologist and comparative methods guru Liam Revell provides a program to visualize the evolution of traits in multivariate space, termed a “phylomorphospace.” This method plots species’ values and connects the points to portray their phylogenetic relationships. Most imporantly, the example he uses is none other than Greater Antillean anole ecomorphs, using a figure developed by Luke Mahler and pictured above. The diagram above illustrates convergence of the ecomorphs by showing that members of the same ecomorph class occur in the same parts of morphological space, even though many members of each ecomorph are not closely related to each other. Each large dot represents an extant ecomorph and the color indicates ecomorph class; small dots are internal nodes of the phylogeny. Admittedly, these spaghetti-grams can be hard to follow for large phylogenies, but they do give a sense of how traits have evolved and the extent to which convergence occurs.

The Anole’s Pajamas

By Jonathan Losos

On March 13, 2011

In Classics from the Literature, Natural History Observations

Anolis gemmosus from Mindo, Ecuador

One of the reasons that spot-lighting for anoles at nights works so well is that many anole species adopt a lighter color in the evening. This was first noted by Reverend Lockwood in an article in the American Naturalist in 1876 who noted that his captive anoles were usually brown during the day, even when on a green leaf, and were green at night, even when sleeping on brown surfaces. He concluded (p.13): “The belief that the color of the contiguous object is mimicked for the sake of protection is, I think, not confirmed by the observed facts. The truth is that in this matter of animals enjoying life there is a higher law than that of mere intention. I shall call it the law of spontaneous expression, which has its base in another law, to wit, that a joy unuttered is a sense repressed. Why should green be the favorite night-gown of our sleeping Anolis? I timidly venture the suggestion that it is because the animal is disposing itself for the luxury of sleep, its color changes being the utterances of its emotions . . . Whether it be the expression of enjoyment of repose, comfort, or emotional joy, the highest manifestation is its display of green.”

Photo Caption Contest

By Jonathan Losos

On March 11, 2011

In Natural History Observations, New Research

We’ll all give a big hand to whomever provides the best caption for this photo. While you’re ruminating about something clever, notice that this adult male Anolis sagrei, collected from an introduced population in Taiwan and reported on here, is quite fat and sassy (or at least fat). Clearly, the extra appendage did it no harm. Who knows, maybe it even helped! Many anoles with three legs have been collected over the years (more examples always welcome). The existence of five-legged anoles means that it is now statistically possible to examine the relationship between limb number and sprint speed. Stay tuned.

Chamaeleolis (False Chameleon) Captive Care

By Jonathan Losos

On March 10, 2011

In Anoles in Commerce

Blinky, someone's pet false chameleon. Photo from http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/photo.php?id=17574

Who knew that false chameleons, as they are called (technically, anoles in the clade—formerly genus—Chamaeleolis), are so common in the reptile captive husbandry world? In Cuba, these animals are a rare treat, one of the hardest anoles to find. Many talented anole biologists have returned from Cuba empty-handed, with nary a Chamaeleolis spotting to report. One might think that a big, white lizard like this would be easy to spot, but they are very slow and shy, blending right into their environment.

Cuba strongly protects its native wildlife, but apparently some got out, reputedly to Europe. Turns out that they are easy to breed, and so now they are readily available. Not cheap, though—a quick google found false chameleons of several species for sale, but the standard price was in the $500 range.

In any case, should you have a hankering to go Chamaeleolis, there’s now a good resource for captive husbandry and care. Kelly Bradley of the Forth Worth Zoo has raised many a false chameleon in her day, and she’s now detailed how to do it in her recent tell all exposé in Reptiles magazine

Field Assistants Sought For Summer Anole Fieldwork in the Bahamas

By Jonathan Losos

On March 9, 2011

In All Posts

Field Assistants (2-3) needed for field research on the behavior and ecology of the lizards Anolis sagrei and Leiocephalus carinatus on Great Abaco Island, Bahamas. The projects are part of a long-term study evaluating behavioral plasticity and its consequences on ecological and evolutionary processes. Assistants will be in charge of collecting focal observations and general ecological data. Duties include assisting in data collection, analyzing video recordings, habitat characterization, and data entry. Assistants must be flexible in their needs, comfortable living and working in close quarters, and able to work under hot and humid conditions. Assistants must enjoy watching and describing the behavior of animals for long periods of time, while working under relatively isolated conditions. Prior experience conducting fieldwork is desirable but not required. This can be a great opportunity for undergraduates with an interest in pursuing graduate studies in behavioral ecology or herpetology. An overview of the day-to-day activities related to this project can be found at

http://chipojolab.blogspot.com

Positions will run from 16 May to 13 June 2011. We offer a living stipend ($1,440/month), plus room & board and cost of transportation to the field-site. Field assistants will need to provide their own personal gear, including a backpack and life-jacket. Research will take place on relatively small islands, and short trips in a small boat are part of the daily activities. Email a cover letter, resume, and contact info for two (2) references to:

mleal@duke.edu

The review of applications will begin immediately.

Manuel Leal

Department of Biology

Duke University

Anoles Rule!

By Jonathan Losos

On March 7, 2011

In New Research

In an unprecedented display of organismal superiority, an anole graces the cover of a major scientific publication for the third time in six months (the others may be seen here and here [editor’s note: see comment]). The photo advertises an article on environmental niche modelling and biogeographic boundaries in two Hispaniolan anole species, which will be the subject of a forthcoming post. Incidentally, not that anyone’s counting, this makes two cover shots for Richard Glor and one for Luke Mahler.

Anolis Photo Presentation

By Jonathan Losos

On March 7, 2011

In All Posts

Photo from http://www.dpchallenge.com/image.php?IMAGE_ID=18556

Just back from a talk on primate color evolution. I was gratified to see that the opening slide of the talk included a picture of an anole—didn’t expect that in a monkey talk! However, the image used was the one above. Anole seminar aficionados know that this is a no-no—this image has been used in more talks than is humanly imaginable! The reason is simple: when you Google (or Google Image) Anolis, this image is one of the first couple that pop up. And it’s seemingly a nice picture, so people tend to use it. All the time. But look more closely. This guy is not the Adonnis of the anole world. Rather, his schnozz is very beat up. This fellow should not be the poster child for the anole world. I had always assumed that he was a captive animal, who had rubbed his snout raw against an aquarium wall, as often happens. However, the recent post on fighting A. carolinensis illustrates that perhaps this guy is a fighter, not a lover, and bears the scars of his battles. In any case, a word to the wise: use another anole photo in your presentations.

Green Anole Mayhem

By Jonathan Losos

On March 6, 2011

In Natural History Observations

Florida green anoles appear so loving and peaceful. But perhaps the tranquility of Hawaii brings out the devil in them. Johanna Mercier was on vacation on Kauai with her husband and daughters when she snapped these photos on February 27^th. She describes what happened: “These were taken in Kapa’a, Kauai at about 4:30pm. They were on a hibiscus plant and I almost missed them, they blended in so well. I watched them for almost half an hour and finally had to pull myself away to make dinner. NOT being sarcastic, they were fascinating! They would flare out their dewlaps and bob at each other with their mouths open and then latch onto each other. They would stay in this lock for easily 5-10 minutes without moving. Then one would slip and fall; they’d climb back to each other and do it all again.”

More Mainland Bird Predation on Anoles

By Jonathan Losos

On March 5, 2011

In Natural History Observations

Photo @Alexa Class.

Pictured here is a nestling ocellated antbird with an anole of some sort (A. lemurinus? humilis?) stuffed down its throat (photo taken at La Selva Biological Station in Costa Rica; event described in Ornitologia Neotropical, vol. 20, 2009). Alexa Class and Johel Chaves-Campos several times observed these birds take anoles from army ants. Johel also reported he has “seen bare-necked umbrellabirds grabbing Norops capito anoles from tree trunks covered with mosses at middle elevations (about 1000 m, Caribbean Slope) in Costa Rica. I was truly impressed by how far away the bird was when it detected the lizard; at least 30 feet away in front of me. Actually, I was watching it with binoculars. The lizard was perhaps 7-10 feet away from me, on my side, and the bird flew directly towards where the lizard was and took it in front of my face. By the way, the lizard was so well camouflaged that I couldn’t see it until the bird took it. Great vision!”