If you’re anything like me, the first image you conjure in your mind when you hear the word Jamaica is a phylogenetic tree showing a monophyletic radiation of six Anolis species representing four ecomorph classes and one unique.
What, that’s not what you thought of?
Anolis grahami, a beauty!
The anoles of Jamaica: Read all about them!
1) Anolis garmani is a crown-giant, although it’s on the small end, if you ask me.
2) Anolis grahami is a trunk-crown and gram for gram one of the prettiest anoles out there.
3) Anolis lineatopus is a trunk-ground anole with a stunningly large cream colored dewlap.
4) Anolis opalinus is a smallish trunk-crown nicely found in a Blue Mountains coffee grove.
5) Anolis reconditus is a unique anole – very little known about it (but see).
6) Anolis valencienni is a twig anole, large and at high population densities for a twig.
7) (And yes, A. sagrei is there, but it’s invaded from Cuba over historical time.)
Earlier this year ,while conducting crocodile (C. acutus) research in Jamaica, I observed some interesting behavior with the Jamaican Twig Anole (A. valencienni). The croc research is conducted at dusk and into the night, which leaves ample time to watch the anoles (during the day) that share our campsite. All of the Jamaican anole species are present at our camp in the Hellshire Hills except A. garmani. The camp is located just off the beach in a sea grape and buttonwood dominated coastal forest.
While lying in a hammock, I watched a female A. valencienni descend a branch toward a tree hollow. As she approached the hollow, I noticed several other females near the entrance hole. I know that it is documented that this species is a communal nester, but to see it was a real treat. During a quick survey of the immediate area (about 20 meter radius), I observed this same activity at two other tree cavities simultaneously. Up to five females were perched outside the cavities, while one or two inspected the entrance. At one of the tree cavities, the females were very wary and during several hours of observation, I noticed that the gravid females entered and exited (after deposition) freely.
At two other cavities, there seemed to be a backup. Females would enter or partially enter, then quickly exit the hole. It wasn’t hard to deduce that something else was occupying the cavity. Even more interesting was that the females at these cavities were not wary, actually completely aloof to my presence. I was curious as to what was preventing their access, so I peered and blew air into one of the holes. As I did this, the females at the entrance which were looking at my face only inches away shifted their attention into the hole. I still couldn’t see anything, so I utilized a flashlight and after doing so, saw that a Croaking Gecko (Aristelligar praesignis) was “blocking” entry and appeared to defend the cavity from intruders. Additionally, I noticed the walls of the cavity encrusted with eggs. Considering the size and shape of eggs, all appeared to be freshly laid or previously hatched Anolis eggs.
I cannot explain the female anoles’ behavior and complete disregard of my presence; even allowing me to touch them (see video).
I had several hypotheses about this behavior; one is that perhaps females worked cooperatively to intimidate the cavity occupier (gecko) at entrance… even enlisting the observer as an ally?
After egg depsition
Before egg deposition
Gecko in cavity (blurry); eye and eyestripe can be seen.
Who wouldn’t delight in a passel of festive anoles, frolicking around in mid-December? Janson Jones, a raconteur if there ever was, certainly knows how to live for the moment. Check out his latest saurian musings on Dust Tracks on the Web.
“Dear Blair, of course you are right, but the scale is all wrong. Predictability of course within a constrained design and clade of close relatives as in your example. My contingency is at the much higher level of designs themselves.”
Blair Hedges recently sent me the image on the left with the following explanation:
“I was preparing a lecture for my evolution class and came across this reply from Steve Gould to me many years ago (Oct 1986), on a post-it note!
I can’t find my original letter to him but I recall it well. As a grad student, I heard him give a lecture about the Cambrian Explosion where he claimed that evolution operated differently –contingency instead of adaptation or predictability– at the higher level of animal designs. I told him I disagreed because I was seeing too much predictability in the adaptive radiations on Caribbean islands to believe that it was not happening throughout life at all levels.
Translation of his reply: “Dear Blair, of course you are right, but the scale is all wrong. Predictability of course within a constrained design and clade of close relatives as in your example. My contingency is at the much higher level of designs themselves.”
Not sure how you feel about it, but I still don’t agree with his explanation! 500 mya the Cambrian explosion was just an adaptive radiation like anoles.”
Interestingly, this story jibes very closely with a story of my own. In 1998, a number of colleagues and I published a paper in Science reporting a phylogenetic analysis of Caribbean anoles demonstrating convergent evolution of the anole ecomorphs. A reporter for Science contacted me and in the ensuing discussion, I suggested that an interesting person to contact to get an opinion of the paper would be Stephen Jay Gould. I was quite disappointed when her piece appeared and had no quote from Gould. When I subsequently talked to her, I was astounded to learn that she had, indeed, talked to Gould and he had given a reply pretty much exactly the same as on the post-it above. And…she had decided no one would be interested in what S.J. Gould had to say about replicated, convergent adaptive radiation, and so she didn’t include the quote in her article.
A message from Monty Harper, the genius behind Anole in Love:
We are down to our last day and a half.
We are 44% funded. We need $5,600 more in pledges to make this CD happen.
That sounds like a lot. But consider…
Kickstarter says the average pledge amount is $70. If each of us – there are 80 backers right now! – if each of us was to bring in just one additional backer today, that could mean $5,600 in additional pledges, which is exactly what we need!
Even if Kickstarter’s average is a bit high for this project, 80 additional backers today would put us within sight of the goal, and would make tomorrow a very exciting day!
So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to bring in at least one additional backer today.
What tools have you with which to accomplish this Herculean task, you ask?
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, email lists – these are great, but…
A personal email, a text, a phone call, a (gasp) face-to-face conversation! – these are very effective for engaging one person. Who do you know that would really appreciate great kid-friendly science music? A parent, an educator, a librarian, a scientist?
Here are some general talking points –
Any pledge of $5 or more gets you an immediate download of 12 science songs
The new songs are all written and waiting to be recorded
These songs are inspired by conversations with scientists – they are unique in their focus on the scientific process
The funding is necessary for hiring musicians and studio time, paying for design and duplication
Public libraries are using science as a theme this summer – here is a chance to get some really good material into the hands of people motivated to use it with kids
If we don’t reach the funding goal, the CD will be put on hold, and who knows when or if it will ever get made?
Match a song to the person – who do you know that would be excited about one of these song topics?
“Vaccination!” – a pro-vaccination anthem!
“Anole in Love” and “My One and Only Vole” – science themed love songs!
“Left Brain” and “This Is Your Brain on Music” – brain science!
“Quarks and Electrons” – particle physics, the nature of the universe!
“Citizen Scientist” – citizen science is huge right now!
“Photosynthesis,” “Green Footprint,” and “Rustbusters” – alternative energy!
“Psychology” and “Popular” – psychology!
“What Goes On?” – ecology!
“Predators, Prey, and the Games They Play” – evolution!
“Fizz Boom Read” – a theme song for 2014 summer reading!
Most of these songs are up on YouTube now:
One other tool I can give you is – images to share on social media. You can look for these on my facebook feed, or download and post them yourself:
These stunning images of Puerto Rican emerald anoles, Anolis evermanni, drinking nectar are from the website of Alfredo D.Colón Archilla who has also published an account of the observations.
I highly recommend his website for anyone interested in some great photos of Puerto Rican herps for use in future posts; you can also read about how he uses his photos elsewhere, including on EOL, on the home page.
As an added bonus here is a much lower quality photo of Anolis grahamidoing the same thing.
Editor’s note: we’ve published on anole nectivory before, most recently here.
Situated at the northern end of the the Lesser Antillean island chain, Montserrat is home to a number of interesting herps, including the endemic galliwasp Diploglossus montisserrati, the endemic skink Mabuya montserratae, and the endemic anole Anolis lividus. This anole was bravely investigated and reported on by Anole Annals’ intrepid anoleologist Martha Munoz. If your inquiry into the reason I used the words “bravely” and “intrepid” has left you a little lost, the smoke Montserrat is emitting from its active volcano will drag you to the answer: Martha was on the island when the Soufrière Hills dome collapsed and spewed volcanic ash 9 miles skyward!
Collapse of the dome sends ash skywards. January 2010. Photo by Martha Munoz.
Last week, while going through some old pictures I had stored on my computer , I happened upon a few photos of A. equestris that I must have saved back when I used to surf the web for pictures of anoles. Taking a second to glance through the pictures for old times sake, I realized something: A. equestris is actually a quite variable species. Now I’m sure others besides myself have realized this before, the people who went about naming the long list of subspecies that I just found out this species has for example, but I can’t seem to find pictures of some of these subspecies so as to identify the animals in the photos, if they are indeed different subspecies that is, so I decided to post them here in hopes of getting an ID. I have chosen one photo for each of the different forms that I have noticed. I have my guesses about many of them and I’m pretty sure about a couple others. I have written my guess, if any, under each photo along with the photo reference; could anyone who knows the ID of a particular animal post their opinion in the comments? Thanks in advance!
Anolis equestris potior
Anolis equestris equestris (introduced to Miami)
Photo from:http://www.fotos.org/galeria/showphoto.php/photo/76326 ? probably Anolis equestris or A.luteogularis Photo apparently taken at La Habana. two other photos: (1,2)
Anolis equestris, photo by Henk Wallays. license:CC BY-NC photo from http://calphotos.berkeley.edu Anolis equestris thomasi
We were long overdue for a little make-over here at Anole Annals, so we just updated our WordPress theme. We’re also going to be adding some new header images derived from this year’s photo contest. We will include a credit to the copyright holder on each image, but please let us know if you’d prefer not to see your image in our header. We hope you enjoy the new look and please let us know if you notice any problems.
A message from Monty Harper, the genius behind 
