Screen shot of Anolis sagrei male and female from The Runner
Anole Annals regulars Nathan Dappen and Neil Losin, of Day’s Edge Productions, have won another prize for their filmmaking. This time, it’s for their entry, The Runner, in the World Wildlife Fund video competition themed “Life. Nature. You. Make the Connection.”
Screen shot of Anolis carolinensis male from The Runner
Footage of Anolis sagrei and A. carolinensis in Miami plays during seconds 40-45.
If you’re here, you’ve caught on to the fact that we’ve moved to our new home at anoleannals.org. We’re having a header photo contest to celebrate this move, but before introducing the contest I need to cover some important information about the move.
First, I want to say thanks to Melissa Woolley for making the move possible. Melissa moved the entirety of past Annals – including posts, comments, categories, and tags – to a new server, so you can just keep on using the new blog the same way you did the old one. Note that comments and posts on the new anoleannals.org site will not appear at the old anoleannals.wordpress.com, and vice versa. To avoid confusion, the old blog will soon disappear entirely from view. Melissa painstakingly created new accounts for all of our old users on the new system, but you might need to reset your password, which you can do here. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this might cause and welcome any feedback about how we could further smooth the transition. Temporary glitches aside, this move permits us to make some much needed improvements and expansions to the blog (we’ll introduce one such improvement very shortly!). Those of you who routinely get to us by Googling “Anole Annals,” should use this opportunity to bookmark our new page!
OK, on to the photo contest! We’re looking for new header images and need your help. We’ll likely do a reader poll to pick a few winners among the entries received, but the precise format of the contest will depend upon the number of entries we get. Winning photos will earn a place of honor among our set of rotating header images. In order to be considered, an image must be precisely 1000 pixels wide by 288 pixels high. We’ll credit you as photographer wherever possible, but ask that images not include any text or watermarks. You can submit your images using our blog’s new ability to easily add images to a comment; just click the “Choose File” link beneath the comment box and navigate to your JPEG photo. I can’t wait to see all of your amazing anole images!
We’ve decided to extend the deadline for the poetry competition one more week. We’ve had a number of good entries but would love some more!
Martha Muñoz’s photo of developing Anolis longitibialis embryos were selected as a “Short Sharp Science” feature. Congratulations, Martha!
When its not trying to kill off distinguished herpetologists, the Center for North American Herpetology’s (CNAH‘s) mailing list is a great way to keep abreast of all kinds of herp related news. Today, the CNAH’s list called attention to the fact that the New York Public Library is selling reproductions of classic prints from Holbrook‘s North American Herpetology. Included among Holbrook’s plates is a rendering of Anolius Carolinensis that would look excellent on any good anolologist’s wall! The prints being offered by the NY Public Library appear to be from the second edition published in 1842. I’m not sure if the same print appeared in the first edition, or even which volume the anole was originally in; Holbrook famously recalled and burned many copies of the first edition in a bonfire at his house due to problems with the plates and with the organization of species accounts. It looks like an 8 x 10″ Anolius Carolinensis print will set you back around $35. Alternatively, you could get a facsimile of the whole edition for $70 from the SSAR!
Photo by Luis Diaz.
By browsing a PDF showing the amphibians and reptiles of Cuba, I found a picture of a beautiful anole:
Anolis equestris potior.
After doing some research, I was able to find very little info about it. It was described in 1975 by Schwartz and Thomas and lives only on Cayo Santa Maria (province Villa Clara)! It would take on the beautiful blue color during stress or “emotion,” just as some other species of anoles take on a dark phase.
The schedule for the 2012 meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology was recently published and anole enthusiasts will not be disappointed. A key word search of “Anolis” yields 26 presentations, 7 posters and 19 talks! Topics range widely including presentations on the ecology, behavior, development, and genomics of anoles.
Ken Miyata photographed these anoles about 30 years ago. All we know is that they are from Colombia. Can anyone help?
The old (portable pesticide pump), and the new (premium watering wand). Note that watering wand is connected via a hose to the DI water supply at the top left.
The thing about keeping captive anoles that most surprises the uninitiated is the fact that they don’t drink out of bowls. Instead, anoles generally lap up water provided in the form of daily sprayings. If you have a few anoles in a terrarium at your house, a handheld pump action sprayer is more than sufficient (think Windex bottle with water in it). When you scale up to hundreds of cages, however, you’re going to need another solution. In this post, I briefly review some our lab’s efforts to improve spraying efficiency.
For an interesting discussion of how the anole genome informs about human genetics, and discussion of a creationist’s claim that the anole genome can’t tell us anything about evolution, check out the latest post in Anolis Tollis.
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