Not sure how I came across these on the web, but I found Robert Hoogveld’s flickr page and he kindly allowed me to post these fabulous photos. Some may recall the post on Robert’s article on A. proboscis two years ago. Apparently, he has some more good stuff up his sleeves, or so he tells me.
Anolis marmoratus. Photo by Robert Hoogveld
Anolis (Chamaelinorops) barbouri. Photo by Robert Hoogveld.
Anolis oculatus. Photo by Robert Hoogveld
Brown anole being eaten by a Cuban Treefrog. Photo by jwood10016.
Surely you remember the heart-warming story–the best post AA has ever had–about Gordon, the green anole that was almost eaten by a Cuban tree frog, but somehow escaped and lived to see many more days (if you haven’t, check it out now!). Well, apparently the story doesn’t always end so happily for anole-kind. Above is a photo from Orlando, Fl, of a brown anole going down the hatch, and there’s no reason to believe that it came back up. There’s a whole series of photos on planetisuzoo.
During a recent trip to the interior of Colombia (March 2013), we spotted this large striking anole. It was located just outside the town of Barichara, on the ancient Camino Real trail to Guane. Average elevation of this area is approximately 4,200 feet. Can anyone help identify this species and gender?
As it was early in morning, the anole had just begun to bask in the morning sun. It had probably not thoroughly warmed its body yet, and made for an easy capture! We examined, photographed, and released unharmed. -Marc Kramer, DVM (Miami, FL)
March 2013 was a strange March in my neck of the woods: the American southeast. Down south, we had a number of remarkable cold waves pass through the early-spring season. Though these cold fronts weren’t quite as dramatic as those entirely-scientifically-accurate and precisely-represented megastorms-of-doom depicted in the hit motion picture The Day After Tomorrow, they were still quite impressive in their own right. Definitely more freeze warnings than I’m used to in March… at least in Florida and Georgia. Not so much in Alaska. Up there, it’s frigid mayhem as usual.
Anyhow, at the end of March, my family headed down from Valdosta, Georgia to Mt. Dora, Florida (a bit north/northwest of Orlando in Lake county) to visit with Kid A’s grandparents. There wasn’t too much hiking / outdoor-activity scheduled for that weekend. Easter was the name of the game. Wabbits. Well, Easter wabbits and the season finale of The Walking Dead. Still, as is often the case in central Florida, sometimes you don’t really have to look very far to find some cool stuff, particularly when the weather finally warms up after a delayed and tedious late-winter departure…
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!
As we have posted previously, the Glor lab has been breeding anoles to assess the degree of reproductive isolation between A. distichus-clade lineages. Most eggs we collect fall into two easily separated categories: white, calcified, viable eggs; and yellow, uncalcified, inviable eggs. On occasion we get a third type: white, seemingly viable, yet uncalcified eggs. These represent only about 1% of the eggs in our current experiment. We always incubate these, in the hopes that they will develop, but typically they mold early in incubation and, upon dissection, show no signs of fertilization or development. The egg above is our first exception which, when incubated for about 3 weeks, was clearly developing (it has, sadly, since died).
So, AA community, has anyone else seen anything like this? I would very much like to hear your thoughts, interpretations and comments.
Time for everyone’s favorite parlor game. Your AA correspondents are out in the field, and this turned up. So, which is it? And what species, exactly?
More eye candy for the anole-loving evolutionary biology crowd. This one is a sumptuous photo of A. distichus by inspired photographer and AA contributor Miguel Landestoy, advertising February 2013 Evolution readers to the presence of a paper on dewlap color by Julienne Ng and colleagues, about which we have already reported.
Astute readers will realize that this is the fourth time since mid-2010 that Evolution‘s editors have had the wisdom to put an anole on the cover. Anyone remember seeing a stickleback or cichlid there?
Photo by Brian Arbogast
Brian Arbogast sent these photos with a request for identification. I have my guesses, but I thought I’d throw it out to the experts. Here’s what Brian had to say: “They were taken in the lower cloud forest of Sumaco Volcano, on the eastern slope of the Andes in Ecuador at about 1700-1800m in elevation.”
Photo by Brian Arbogast
The SICB (Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology) meeting is right around the corner! Right after the New Year, many anolologists (including me!) will be heading out to San Francisco to learn what’s new and exciting in Anolis research. In addition to blogging about all the anole posters and presentations I attend, I will be giving a talk about some research I conducted on the evolution of thermal tolerances in anoles. I’ve been working hard to get this talk into shape, but I’m woefully lacking a nice photograph of the Central American semi-aquatic anole, A. lionotus. Would anyone out there be willing to share a nice, clear photo of this lizard with me? I would give you credit for it, of course, and it would greatly help me out.
You can contact me at mmunoz@oeb.harvard.edu or through the comments section of this post. Thanks so much and happy holidays!
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén
