Anole Annals

Jamaican Twig Anole Observations

On December 24, 2013

In All Posts, Natural History Observations, Notes from the Field

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.

Could Your Reptile Make You Sick?

By Yoel Stuart

On December 21, 2013

In Natural History Observations

Photo from:http://www.panoramio.com/photo/73496249 ?

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/73496240

What do diseases like Ebola, Influenza, SARS, and Rabies have in common? Well, for one, they’re all viruses. Second, and more germane to this discussion, they’re all zoonoses–diseases that are usually harbored in non-human animal hosts but occasionally spill over into humans. Zoonoses are the subject of David Quammen’s excellent and aptly named new book, Spillover.

http://www.realscience.us/2012/07/30/ebola-virus-spreads-across-uganda/

Quammen is in peak form with Spillover: he tracks these diseases and the researchers who study them from goat farms in Holland to bat caves in Uganda to wild meat markets on the Chinese mainland near Hong Kong. The book reads like a thriller–where exactly is Ebola lurking?– but doesn’t need fictional plot twists to keep the pages turning. Quammen’s accurate, clear, and exiting descriptions of the epidemiology, ecology, and evolution of zoonotic diseases keeps the pages turning instead.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Lesser_short-nosed_fruit_bat_(Cynopterus_brachyotis).jpg

A central message of Spillover is that a “successful” zoonosis is the result of opportunity. That is to say, the life history of many zoonotic agents does not require a pass through human populations; they will survive, reproduce, and spread just fine in their animal hosts. However, if a zoonotic disease happens to find itself in a human body, those viruses (or bacteria, or protozoans, etc.) that can survive will survive, reproduce, and possibly spread to other people. Thus, the story of zoonoses is the story of humans creating the opportunity for spillover by coming into contact with animal hosts. For example, HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) is closely related to SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) and all evidence suggests that it spilled into human populations through the use of chimpanzees for food. Nipah, a neurological and respiratory disease in Malaysia, Singapore, and Bangladesh, likely spills over into human populations through contact with fruit bat feces, contact that is becoming more common as human cities, towns, and agricultural fields encroach on the tropical rainforests that the bats call home. In sum, close contact with wild animals greatly increases the chance of spillover.

Close contact with wild animals… Close contact… Hmmm, what is it we do again?…

Oh yeah… Uh oh!

Reflections on the Joy of Winter Active Anoles

By Jonathan Losos

On December 20, 2013

In All Posts

Photo by Janson Jones

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.

Short Film Featuring P. J. Darlington and Anolis sagrei

By Katie Boronow

On December 19, 2013

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor

In a new film, Anna Lindemann uses predation by Anolis sagrei on a group of beetles to explore the evolution of Batesian mimicry. Anna combines her interests in biology, art, and music to produce animations and live productions that explore processes in developmental biology and evolution.

Anna’s newest release, titled “Beetle Bluffs,” is inspired by the observations of biologist P. J. Darlington. Darlington might be most familiar to blog readers as the namesake for the Haitian anole, A. darlingtoni. In 1938, Darlington published a brief series of experiments examining the consumption of beetles with differing color patterns by A. sagrei. He concluded that Batesian mimicry was likely occurring, in which the color patterns of the inedible Thonalmus beetles are mimicked by several other edible beetle species in order to avoid predation. “Beetle Bluffs” combines stop-motion animation and archival material from Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology to bring life to this story. Enjoy!

Darlington, PJ. 1938. Experiments on mimicry in Cuba, with suggestions for future study. Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London 87: 681-695.

Anolis desechensis: Little Known Anole From The Puerto Rican Bank

By Jonathan Losos

On December 17, 2013

In Anole Photographs

Anolis desechensis is a member of the A. cristatellus species complex from Puerto Rico. Found only on the tiny island of Desecheo, very little is known about its natural history. In fact, some might question whether it should be a distinct species, but in the absence of any data, it’s hard to say.

This lovely photo comes from the Facebook page of Island Conservation, a wonderful organization devoted–as its name implies–to the conservation of island biota. I just heard a talk yesterday crediting them for eradicating rats from an island in the Galapagos, paving the way for preservation of a unique giant tortoise race. But that’s another story.

Stephen Jay Gould On Replicated Adaptive Radiation In Anoles

By Jonathan Losos

On December 16, 2013

In All Posts

“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.

Why Aren’t All Crown Anoles Green? The Case of the Polymorphic Canopy Anole, Anolis cuvieri

By Jonathan Losos

On December 14, 2013

In Natural History Observations

Brown/Grey phase Anolis cuvieri, just awakened from a nap. Photo by Alejandro Sanchez.

Most arboreal anoles are green, and for a good reason: it’s hard to pick out a green lizard amidst green vegetation. Yet, some species are more subdued in their coloration, with browns or grays–e.g., Anolis luteogularis from Cuba or Anolis microtus from Costa Rica.

An interesting twist is provided by Cuvier’s anole, the crown-giant of Puerto Rico, in which a polymorphism exists in which most lizards are green, but some are brown-grey. We were reminded of this situation by Alejandro Sanchez, who sent the photo displayed above with the comment that it had been a long time since he’d seen one of these morphs. Contrast that with his spectacular photo of the more common green morph below.

Green Anolis cuvieri. Photo by Alejandro Sanchez.

Rivero in his epic Los Anfibios y Reptiles de Puerto Rico notes the polymorphism, but does not provide any explanation or discussion, and I am unaware of any other literature on this subject. Puerto Rican readers out there: what else do we know? Are they definitely different morphs? Someone once whispered in my ear he had seen brown ones turn green, but the only publication of which I’m aware to discuss this phenomenon, Rand and Andrews (1975), says they don’t. But that was based on a very small sample size. Does the gray/brown morph occur throughout the island? Any idea what it’s all about? Any difference in habitat use? As far as I’m aware, the adaptive significance of this polymorphism has never been studied.

The Role Of Genes And Diet In Determining Dewlap Color

By Jonathan Losos

On December 13, 2013

In New Research

Results of mating trials in Ng et al.’s study. Top two rows are within-population crosses; bottom two are between crosses from different populations that differed in dewlap color. Note that in the top, individuals look like their fathers, whether at the bottom, dewlap colors are intermediate between that of the two populations.

Everybody loves a pretty dewlap, and recent years have seen a lot of interest in studying the factors that determine dewlap color, as well as the role dewlap color may play in species recognition, sexual selection and other processes. Many have suggested that the dewlap is a focus of sexual selection; some have even opined that it is an honest signal of something, maybe good genetic quality, maybe the ability to procure lots of color-inducing dietary items. Unfortunately, we know almost nothing about the genetic basis of dewlap color, nor about the effect of environmental variation.

Anolis distichus exhibits more variation in dewlap color and pattern than any other anole, and thus is the perfect choice for such a study. Julienne Ng just completed her doctoral research at U. Rochester on this species, documenting that variation in dewlap color correlates with environment among populations. Now she and colleagues report on laboratory studies to assess the extent to which variation is determined by genes vs. diet.

Why diet? Because reds and oranges are likely determined by carotenoids, which vertebrates cannot synthesize. Thus, it is plausible that the amount of carotenoids ingested by a lizard may correlate with its color. This hypothesis has only been tested once before, in a study on A. sagrei by Steffen, who failed to find evidence for a diet effect on the red-orange dewlap of this species.

This study had two components. First, to study genetics, lizards from two populations–one with an orange dewlap, the other with a plain whitish dewlap–were crossed in the laboratory. Second, lizards were fed lots of carotenoids.

The results: strong evidence for a genetic basis for variation in dewlap color. Purebred individuals looked like their fathers (top two rows in figure above), but crosses were intermediate in color (bottom two). Pretty strong evidence for a genetic basis for the trait. And the effect of diet? Not so much. No difference in color between lizards in the carotenoid supplementation treatment vs. the control lizards.

The bottom line is that, at least in this species, genes control variation in dewlap color. Combined with Steffen’s study, there are now two negative results for a role of diet. Of course, work on other species is necessary to confirm the generality of these results, as well as additional investigation into the exact genes responsible for dewlap color.

Last Chance to Help the Anole Love Song Get Produced

By Jonathan Losos

On December 12, 2013

In All Posts

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:

Just click to get the full-sized image.

Nectivory in Anolis evermanni

By K.Ra

On December 11, 2013

In All Posts

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 grahami doing the same thing.

Editor’s note: we’ve published on anole nectivory before, most recently here.