Category: All Posts Page 149 of 154

As Jonathan describes in Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree (Chapter 8 ) data on anole food preferences are sparse. However, this is a critical element of anole biology that needs to be more thoroughly explored if we are going to understand the diversity of skull shapes (the topic of a future post), nutrition, or energetics in anoles. The question is simple in principle but difficult in practice: do species preferentially eat certain insects? If so, has head shape adapted for the preferential capture or mastication of insects of a particular size or hardness? Do lizards that eat insects of lower “quality” eat more often or move less often? Perhaps anoles will eat what ever bug it happens to encounter and skull diversity is the result of other selection pressures. At this time we do not yet know. Interestingly, however, preliminary evidence suggests that the primary food source of many anoles are just ants, which while quite abundant are not very nutritious. Ants can account for up to 80% of the stomach contents of A. distichus for example.

The embedded video gave me an idea for a great experiment that can be done in a controlled setting.  Simply run various bugs across the screen of an iPad and see if different species preferentially target particular sizes or shapes. If anyone would like to donate an iPad to this cause of utmost importance I would be happy to perform the experiments.

Our Anole Annals header photo contest has elicited some rather spectacular entries.  Narrowing the field to a manageable number of entries for voting was no easy feat and was achieved largely be excluding entries that were improperly sized.  There were too many good entries to reasonably fit all of them into a single poll, so we’re going to vote for the grand prize winner of the signed book in two rounds.  Here’s the first round:

More details on the contest after the jump.

Read More

To celebrate Anole Annals‘ move to a new platform (https://www.anoleannals.org/), yesterday we announced a photography competition–winning photographs will be put into the rotation of header images displayed at the banner at the top of the page. And now we add a sweetener to the pot. The Grand Prize winner will receive a copy of Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree: Ecology and Adaptive Radiation personally signed, with great embellishment and profuse gratitude, by the author himself. Surely a valued keepsake for years to come!

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.  One way to do this is to use Photoshop to resize individual images. From the Image Menu: go to “Image Size” then change the width to 1000 px.

Get your photos in now. Deadline some time soon, once we have enough good entries. Good luck! May the best photographer win!

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!