Rob Heathcote posted this photo as a comment on Sean Giery’s post on bird predation on anoles, but the photo is so spectacular that we need to make sure everyone sees it.
Author: Jonathan Losos Page 79 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 tigrinus. Photo by Anthony Herrel
The last leg of our Little Known Mainland Anole Tour took us to the mountains above Caracas, in quest of Anolis tigrinus. A “mystery anole” photo of that species was put up on AA in December, and savvy readers quickly pegged it as a mainland species, noting it’s twig anole-like appearance. Moreover, the only publication on the natural history of this species, by Ugueto, Rivas, Barros, and Smith, suggested it was a twig anole as well. Given our previous work that had identified the twig anolishness of A. proboscis in Ecuador and A. (Phenacosaurus) heterodermus in Colombia (earlier in this trip), we’re beginning to see a trend: twig anoles seem to be the one kind of West Indian ecomorph that has evolved many times on the mainland (the A. pentaprion clade is another candidate).
Colonia Tovar
So, fresh from the beaches of Maracaibo, we headed to the mountains in quest of the tiger anole. A last minute change in plan led us to the little town of Colonia Tovar at about 7000 feet in elevation. We didn’t know what to expect from TC, but Wikipedia describes it as “Germany in the Caribbean.” Established by settlers from Baden (now part of Germany) in the 1850’s, the town gradually declined for a century, before reinventing itself as a kitschy tourist trap in the 1960s, and now it’s booming. And it was delightful. All of the buildings seemed straight out of Bavaria, there were brewhauses and wienerschnitzel (see photo at bottom of post), the waitresses wearing their fraulein get-ups.
The friendly locals in Colonia Tovar
We stayed at a delightful little hotel, Cabañas Heidelberg. And for no extra charge, we were able to go lizard hunting in the little patch of woods out back.
Those of you who noticed when the answer was briefly revealed, please don’t spill the beans. Very few AA readers, or anyone else, have seen this one!
A windy study site on the northwest coast of Venezuela.
All of us who study anoles in the Caribbean share a PR problem: people think we’re partying on the beach all day long. Now, it’s true that that’s exactly what some of my colleagues do (you know who you are, but I’m not naming names), but there’s a problem with this approach: anoles don’t live on the beach! And for that reason, anole researchers generally do not either, at least not during working hours.
The padless foot of Anolis onca. Photo by J. Losos.
As we all know, anoles are characterized by the possession of two characteristics, an extensible throat fan and expanded subdigital toepads. But there are exceptions. The Cuban A. vermiculatus and A. bartschi (two of the finest anoles you’ll ever come across) have no dewlap whatsoever. And one species, A. onca, entirely lacks toepads, not even a hint of subdigital lamellae.
Where am I going with this, you might wonder? The answer is simple. Where do you think A. onca lives? On the beach! Anolis onca is the only beach-dwelling anole, or so it’s said. And for that reason, our South American Little Known Anole Tour (SALKAT) moved from the chilly Andes of Colombia to the smoking hot sealevel of Maracaibo, Venezuela to see what’s up with this species.
Current exchange rate, 6.3 Bolivares (Bs) to the dollar.
A few notes about Venezuela. Well, one mostly. It’s incredibly expensive. Who would pay $10 for a box of Froot Loops? Not even me. Or $9 for a can of Pringles? Ahem, well, it had been a good day. Rental cars cost more than $200/day, if you can find one (when we tried to get one at the Caracas Airport, the six rental car booths had, between them, two cars available). And hotel rooms are exorbitantly priced and also in scarce supply. We were told that the reason for that is that they were full of Cuban workers, sent over by the Castros to help their socialist brothers-in-arms. And, to be honest, the people we encountered–in the airport, at the hotel, etc.–often weren’t the friendliest.
One thing was cheap, though, gasoline. They practically give it away. At one point, we only had 1/4 tank of gas, so stopped at a service station. I went in and bought a can of soda for $2.50, then paid the bill for the gas, which came to $0.60.
Anolis onca. Photo by J. Losos.
Any way, back to A. onca.
That’s one beat up looking old dude, but apparently he’s still got it. Or does he? She seems to have one foot out the door.
We’ve been following the backyard anole antics reported in Daffodil’s Photo Blog for some time now, and Easter provided a heartwarming photo-story of an old guy who can still find some love. And this old guy seems like he’s seen some better days.
The saga continues. Last December, the Reptile Database, the online listing of all recognized reptile species, issued an update in which anoles were split into the eight genera proposed by Nicholson et al. Now, in the subsequent update released yesterday, they’ve done an about-face and changed all anoles back to Anolis. Here’s what they have to say:
“Anolis. After serious contemplation (and consultation with several experts) we changed the names of anoles back to Anolis. For some reasons see Poe et al. (2013) Zootaxa 3626 (2): 295–299.”
Interestingly, the very next item was this:
“Teiidae. The names of many teiids have changed following the suggestions of Harvey et al. (2012) Zootaxa 3459: 1–156. However, we are already getting complaints that this may not be tenable…”
So, seems like these issues may not necessarily be unique to anoles. The Reptile Database is a great resource for the herpetological community, but I don’t envy it the task of trying to decide when to change names and when not to. Moreover, since it has become so widely used, its decisions probably have an outsized impact on whether people adopt proposed changes or not.
In any case, for any readers who need to get up to speed, the Poe et al. paper referred to above was discussed several weeks ago, and the entire discussion thread on the proposed taxonomy of Nicholson et al. is probably best found by searching with the term “Nicholson” in the search bar to the right.
AA reader Ava writes: “Ironic that on Easter, I found myself on an egg hunt and found a green anole egg that I suspected had just been laid. She would have laid it last night. I put it in a cricket keeper (covered big holes), included the very soil the egg had been laid in and placed the keeper back in the main terrarium in the area where I had found it.
I read, afterward, that the position of the egg should not be disturbed. I fear I may have shifted it around in transfer. Have I blown it? Can one tell which end is up?
I live in Florida where the ‘takeover’ of the brown Bahamian anoles has been increasingly apparent. The ‘greenies’ as we call them have taken to the trees, but seem fewer every year. The browns are so aggressive. My hope is to ‘repopulate’ a certain mango tree where we used to see them. Pointless? Anyone?
I previously mentioned this book, but through the kindness of author Karin Mesa, I can report on the contents of Oliver the Overachiever. This fine children’s book details the lifestyle of non-conforming independent thinking Oliver, who from the day of his hatching, insisted on doing things his way. Needless to say, the conservatives were against change, worrying–correctly–about the threats posed by housecats. But Oliver persevered and eventually triumphs, bringing great joy to the anole masses.
This is a fine message to send to young readers. The drawings are full of whimsy and the book is the recipient of the Mom’s Choice Awards in the category “Children’s Picture Books (Suitable For Ages Birth To 9)” and Preferred Choice Award of the Creative Toy Awards 2011. Apparently, this may be the first of many in the Oliver series and, who knows, maybe they’ll span a movie. You can learn more about Karin’s artistic diversity at her website.
Collecting data in Mosquito Lagoon. Yoel Stuart manning the helm, with Todd Campbell and Casey Gilman.
Moments ago, AA stalwart Yoel Stuart successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation, entitled Character Displacement and Community Assembly in Anolis Lizards. The four chapters include work on species turnover in island and mainland anoles and eleutherodactylid frogs, which was published last year in Proceedings of the Royal Society of London; a review of the evidence for character displacement, just out in Trends in Ecology and Evolution; and a study on rapid evolution of character displacement, which has been discussed previously in these pages.
Let the celebrating begin! Actually, it already has.
Yoel now moves on to his postdoctoral work in Dan Bolnick‘s lab at the University of Texas in Austin, where he will be studying evolutionary divergence in the Canadian aquatic anole, Gasterosteus aculeatus. Congratulations and good luck, Yoel!
Anolis ventrimaculatus. Photo by Diego Garcés
Morphological differences between the sexes and among populations have been studied extensively in Caribbean anoles, but—like so many other aspects of biology—not so much in mainland species. Studies in the islands suggest that differences, both sexual and geographic, often represent adaptation to different conditions, either the sexes partitioning niches or populations adapting to different circumstances.
Martha Calderon and colleagues have just published a paper in Revista de Biología Tropical on variation in the Colombian anole A. ventrimaculatus. Examing museum specimens from seven populations, they find consistent size dimorphism (males larger) and substantial dimorphism in body proportions. The extent of these dimorphisms, however, varies among sites.
Unfortunately, at this time little is known about the habitat use and general ecology of this species, much less about differences among populations, so evaluation of the potential adaptive significance of this variation awaits further fieldwork.
The paper’s abstract:
Variation in body characteristics related to lizard locomotion has been poorly studied at the intraspecific level in Anolis species. Local adaptation due to habitat heterogeneity has been reported in some island species. However, studies of mainland species are particularly scarce and suggest different patterns: high variability among highland lizards and poorly differentiated populations in one Amazonian species. We characterized interpopulation variation of body size and shape in the highland Andean Anolis ventrimaculatus, an endemic species from Western Colombia. A total of 15 morphometric variables were measured in specimens from the reptile collection of the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional, Colombia. The study included individuals from seven different highland localities. We found size and shape sexual dimorphism, both of which varied among localities. Patterns of variation in body proportions among populations were different in both males and females, suggesting that either sexual or natural selective factors are different in each locality and between sexes. Since this species exhibits a fragmented distribution in highlands, genetic divergence may also be a causal factor of the observed variation. Ecological, behavioral, additional morphological as well as phylogenetic data, may help to understand the evolutionary processes behind the geographic patterns found in this species. Rev. Biol. Trop. 61 (1): 255-262. Epub 2013 March 01.