At least vicariously. Track & field aficionado Kevin de Queiroz pointed out that A. aeneus featured prominently in this profile of Grenadian gold medal sprinter Kirani James. Check out at about the 1:00 mark above, or 0:53 in the nicer, official NBC version, but one requiring you to watch a short commercial first.
Author: Jonathan Losos Page 93 of 130
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.
Sebastian Lotzkat presented a fascinating talk on geographic variation, both morphological and genetic, in Panamanian reptiles, emphasizing the highlands of western Panama. Although he discussed a wide range of species, he spent an appropriately large amount of time focusing on anoles, which if I recall correctly, he termed his favorites. To cut to the chase, he’s found very large amounts of variation in almost every species examined, including in some cases dividing species into several new species. Some of this work has already been chronicled in AA, and another paper will soon be reported on, but apparently there is a lot more yet to come. Read the abstract below the fold.
Anole brains. For scale, the partial coin is an American penny.
A pair of talks from Duke University took different approaches to examining anole smarts. Recently minted Ph.D. Brian Powell reported on his examination of the brain size and composition of different anole species. Brian reasoned that anoles living in different habitats would evolve differences in brain structure corresponding to the different challenges they faced, and thus that species that use the same habitat should have converged on brain morphology. However, results failed to support this hypothesis and instead indicated that the size of different brain components evolves in concert. More details below.
The three species that have demonstrated behavioral flexibility in the lab. Sure wish I could remember what the third point was
Later in the meeting, Manuel Leal reported on the cognitive flexibility of several anole species. Previous work has shown that A. evermanni is not only adept at solving novel problems, but can reverse previously learned patterns so as to ignore the stimulus that previously was rewarded and instead respond to a stimulus that previously hadn’t been rewarded. Leal has now extended that work to show that two other anoles can do the same. He then went on to test how adept anoles are at telling apart two similar patterns. He found, surprisingly, that they could tell very different patterns apart, but did not seem to be able to distinguish more similar patterns. Leal concluded by wondering whether minor differences in signals are detectable by receivers, which is an underlying assumption of many studies of sexual selection and communication. Manuel’s abstract is below the fold as well, although he went off-script in much of the talk he presented.
We’ve discussed anole nectarivory here before, but if you had any doubts, this should satisfy them.
Sondra Vega reported the results of a fascinating study of diet in nine Puerto Rican anoles. Using isotope analysis from tail tissue, she concluded that all species are to some degree omnivorous, not terribly surprising in some sense because a number of species have already been reported to eat fruits and berries. What is surprising is that there seem to be two discrete groups, suggesting that some species are more omnivorous than others. In particular, some are more carnivorous (cooki, monensis, pulchellus, and stratulus) and others more omnivorous (cristatellus, cuvieri, evermanni, gundlachi and krugi).
Luke Mahler reported the amazing news (truth in advertising: I’m a co-author) that a large and very distinctive new anole has been discovered in the Dominican Republic. Here’s the abstract:
Discovery of a short-limbed giant Anolis from Hispaniola supports a deterministic model of island evolution and community assembly
We report the discovery of a species of giant anole from Hispaniola that provides new evidence for determinism in the evolution and assembly of Caribbean island Anolis faunas. The new species is most closely related to Hispaniolan ―crown-giant‖ ecomorph anoles (Anolis ricordii clade). However, it is ecomorphologically most similar to Cuban giant twig anoles of the Chamaeleolis clade: both are very large anoles with short limbs and a short tail that tend to utilize relatively narrow perches in cluttered habitats this discovery adds a new dimension to the phenomenon of among-island ecomorph matching that characterizes Greater Antillean anole faunas. In addition, phylogenetic comparative analyses suggest that key aspects of the similarity of Hispaniolan and Cuban giant twig anoles may be the product of evolutionary convergence. Being restricted to a narrow band of threatened mid-elevation forest near the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, this new species should be considered critically endangered.
Kat Wollenberg presented a very interesting analysis of geographic variation in Hispaniolan A. cybotes, distinguishing effects due to environmental differences, microhabitat use, and genetic relatedness. One particularly novel approach was to compare elevational differences that occur independently in a number of different mountain ranges (the different mountain ranges are the red parts in Hispaniola above).
Here’s the abstract:
Diversification within adaptive radiations: the case of Hispaniolan trunk-ground anoles
The evolutionary processes that produce adaptive radiations are still enigmatic to date, as these are by definition recognized after the radiation has occurred, which makes it difficult to study them as an ongoing process. One way to connect pattern to process is to study the processes driving divergence today among populations of species that belong to an adaptive radiation, and compare the results to patterns observed on deeper level. In this paper, we tested whether evolution is a deterministic process with equal outcomes during different stages of the adaptive radiation of Anolis lizards. On the example of a clade of trunk-ground anoles, we inferred the adaptive basis of spatial variation among contemporary populations, and tested whether axes of phenotypic differentiation among them mirror known axes of diversification at deeper levels of the radiation. Although non-parallel change associated with genetic divergence explains the vast majority of geographic variation, we found phenotypic variation to be adaptive as confirmed by spatial convergence across the landscape, as well as genetically independent habitat-associated morphological variation. Morphological diversification of populations occurs recurrently along both tested axes of diversification previously identified in the anole radiation, but different sets of characters are affected.
Blair Hedges provided an update on CaribHerp. We’ve posted on CaribHerp previously, and Blair told us of some exciting new developments. Perhaps the most exciting, an effort to make an app to identify frog calls! Also, Blair is still offering free, cool posters!
Here’s the abstract of the talk:
With color images and distribution maps, caribherp.org functions as a checklist and quick identification guide to the ~800 species of amphibians and reptiles of the West Indies. Sounds and video are included, when available. An initial list of species accounts is first generated by the user, for all species or only those on one island, or those having a search term in their account. The list may be further sorted in many different ways (taxonomy, common name, author, etc.). A new journal, Caribbean Herpetology , is integrated with the database. An online form may be used to submit short articles in the journal, reporting new and significant information on distribution, behavior, and other categories. After review and acceptance, these articles are published online and the information is integrated with the database. Photos, video, and sounds (frog calls) may accompany article submissions. As the journal develops, longer articles will be published. Two other related Caribbean web resources have been released as well: caribmap.org and caribnature.org . CaribMap is a resource for exploring historical map images of the Caribbean, now numbering more than 800 maps dating back to the early 1500s. Map images are fully sortable and searchable. Each map is scanned at high resolution so that small toponyms may be resolved. CaribNature is a conservation site that presents multimediaessays on the natural history of the islands and difficulties facing the biodiversity, starting with Haiti. The mediography is mostly from the work of professional videographers and photographers. The site is available in English, Spanish, and French.
The Anoline Lizard Specialist Group has been formed to gather information and help plan action on the conservation of anoles. Interested? Contact the organizers at anolinelizardsg@gmail.com or check out www.anolisconservation.org.
Ray Huey and Luisa Otero in front of their poster
Anole Annals has previously had a number of posts on the exciting ongoing project in Puerto Rico examining climate change and thermal biology of anoles. Last night, Luisa Otero presented the results of one aspect of the project, examining the reproductive biology of Anolis cristatellus in a forest and an adjacent (i.e., across the street) open habitat. Previous work by Ray Huey (specifically, his dissertation research in the 1970s) showed that in the open in lowland Puerto Rico, crested anoles are able to thermoregulate and maintain a high and constant body temperature, but in the forest, where good sunspots are scarce, anoles don’t thermoregulate and have lower temperatures.
Luisa’s work confirmed that this pattern has not changed even as Puerto Rico has warmed in recent years–open habitats are still thermally preferable for crested anoles. The exciting new twist is that Luisa examined the reproductive rate of the lizards. Every month of the year, more female anoles are gravid in the open habitat, but this result is particularly striking in the winter, when reproduction slows down in the open, but seems to cease entirely in the forest. Hence, differences in thermal biology do appear to have strong effects on individual fitness and presumably population dynamics, and, at least for now, global warming has not changed the relative suitability of different habitats.