Anole Love

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On February 14, 2012

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor

The management here at Anole Annals feels responsible for putting up an appropriate, anole-themed Valentine Day’s post. Unfortunately, our normally reliable stable of incredibly talented and imaginative authors has not come up with the expected image of an anoline cupid, an anole starstruck with love, or some such, so we’re in a bit of a bind. It’s not too late, creative types–there’s still 5 valentine hours left here in North America!

However, in their absence, we thought a little googling would solve the problem. Typing in “anole love” found only one appropriate, G-rated image, and it came from…Anole Annals (below)! So we settled for the intriguing book cover above, which of course leads to the question: has anyone read this provocative romance novel?

 

read all about it here: https://www.anoleannals.org/2012/01/03/asymmetrical-dewlap-color-in-anolis-lineatus-on-curacao/

Science Is More Interesting When You Discover You Were Wrong: The Backstory on the Anole Founder Effect Experiment

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On February 13, 2012

In New Research

They thought it was only a three hour tour.

In my career, I have found that the most exciting research is when the results are exactly the opposite of what I had expected. Certainly, it’s nice to show that what you thought was correct, but you really learn something when the opposite occurs–it makes you look at questions in a new way and often leads to new insights. This has happened to me several times, most recently in our experimental study of founder effects in Bahamian anoles (paper downloadable here).

One of the tiny islands on which the founder effect experiment was conducted. Note the scraggly vegetation. Photo by Jason Kolbe.

Here’s the story: we have been conducting studies on anoles in the Bahamas for quite some time, using tiny islands as experimental test tubes. We had seen island populations wiped out by hurricanes, and we had documented anoles colonizing these islands, so we knew that populations often must be founded by overwater dispersal, probably by one or very few individuals. Given the long-running controversy over the evolutionary significance of founder effects, we had long discussed whether we could create an experimental founder effect, in replicate, to see what would happen. But we never started such an experiment, for a simple reason: suitable islands for our various ecological and evolutionary experiments were in short supply, and this experiment wasn’t a high priority.

Enter Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in short succession in the late summer of 2004.

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Happy Darwin Day !

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On February 12, 2012

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” Charles Darwin

More about Darwin day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Day

http://www.darwinday.org/

It’s Only the Beginning of February, and The Green Anoles Are Already Out and About in Georgia

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On February 11, 2012

In Natural History Observations

Read all about what they’re up to here.

The Loss of a Critical Tool in Anole Biology

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On February 10, 2012

In Research Methods

Today marks a sad day in the history of anole biology: the anole hunter’s best friend has just gone out of production.  Before explaining what I mean, I need to provide some additional details for the uninitiated.  Most anoles are caught primarily with a lasso made of dental floss attached to the end of a pole.  We’ve debated the best material for making lassos but haven’t spent much time on the poles (except here).  Although just about anything ranging from a stick to a golf club can be used as a lizard catching pole, the best lizard poles are generally fashioned from fishing rods.  Fishing rods are ideal for lizard catching because they are both light and long.  For many years, the biggest challenge associated with the use of fishing poles was that they can be relatively difficult to transport.  Rods that could telescope out to 12-20′ generally had only three or four segments, meaning that even a fully collapsed rod was 4-5′ long (too long to be easy to travel with or carry around in the field).  This problem was solved a number of years ago when Cabela’s began producing a new line of telescoping panfish rods that could extend from just over a foot to 10-14′ (they’re no longer listed in the Cabela’s catalogue but you can still find prices and product information at some on-line retailers like Yahoo).  If you check out the reviews, you’ll see that people have used these poles for everything from fishing to herping to displaying “worship banners.”  These inexpensive Cabela’s rods have been my primary anole catching tool for over a decade.  I was deeply saddened when I learned today that Cabela’s will no longer be filling orders for their telescopic panfish rods.  We actually placed this order weeks ago and have been told they were on back-order until today, when we were told simply that our order could not be filled and was being cancelled.  I guess we’re going to have to go through and repair all those broken rods we accumulated over the past decade…

 

Anoles Will Be Featured in a Harvard Museum of Natural History Talk

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On February 9, 2012

In All Posts

Calling all Boston-area anole enthusiasts! This Saturday I will be giving a lecture at the Harvard Museum of Natural History (HMNH) through their Adult Classes program. I will be giving the first talk in a three-part “Topics in Evolution” series, and my focus will be on explaining Convergent Evolution, Adaptation, and Sexual Selection. We know that anoles are a fantastic model system for each of these topics, so you can expect that they will be prominently featured. I will discuss community convergence in Anolis lizards, provide laboratory exercises using ethanol-preserved specimens, and discuss anoles in the public galleries of the Museum. If you’re broadly interested in anoles and in evolution, this might be a fun event for you!

Working Hard for a Meal

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On February 8, 2012

In Introduced Anoles, Natural History Observations

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0bkDhKeeQ4

Thanks to the former student, who sent me the link.

Fear of Lizards Revisited

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On February 7, 2012

In Anoles and Anolologists in the News

Previous posts and associated comments have discussed Scoliodentosaurophobia (here and here) and its prevalence in some anole-rich regions of the Caribbean. I’ve noticed similar attitudes in the US Southeast. In fact, a woman in South Carolina once begged me to kill all the “bugs” (juvenile A. carolinensis) in her bedroom because they disgusted her so much. One interesting way to counter this aversion may be through a public celebration and discussion of lizards. Yaihara Fortis Santiago did just this in an article recently published in El Nuevo Dia, which highlights the well-known lizards of Puerto Rico. Although the article focuses mainly on Sphaerodactylus and Saul Nava’s plans to replicate a recent experiment conducted by Duke’s Manuel Leal, you will notice that the featured photograph is not of a sphaero at all … it’s an anole! Still the world’s most beloved lizard.

Anyone else with links to articles about anoles published in their country of origin?

Anolis Research Stirs Up Evolution-Creationism Controversy

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On February 7, 2012

In New Research

On Sunday, the Washington Post published a nice news article covering the recent study on island colonization and adaptation in anoles (pdf now available here). Very quickly, back-and-forth exchanges appeared in the paper’s online comments section, but most of them were debates about evolution vs. creationism/intelligent design, as well as invectives, insults, and ad hominem attacks. The same thing happened when I posted a story on the anole genome and its utility for the study of evolution on a National Geographic news website. Who knew that anole research was so pivotal to the evolution/creationism controversy? Or that it could bring out the worst in so many?

Appended below are the 77 comments that had appeared in the Washington Post by mid-afternoon on Monday.

Your Comments On:

Castaway lizards put evolution to the test

By , Published: February 4

77

Comments

lynnecatlover
12:52 AM EST
Please hope that the little beasts survived and flourished with shorter hind legs, of course !
akuperma1
2/5/2012 4:48 PM EST
So the key to evolution is a superior being manipulating things. From a lizard’s perspective, what’s the difference between a biologist and a diety?

Tales of Notorious Reptile Smugglers

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On February 6, 2012

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor, Notes from the Field, Research Methods

Stolen World: A Tale of Reptiles, Smugglers, and Skulduggery by Jennie Erin Smith is a page-turning historical account of the most notorious reptile smugglers in the United States.  Many of the stories in Stolen World are derived from first-hand accounts provided by a core group of old-school smugglers, most notably Hank Molt and Tom Crutchfield.  I was shocked at how open these folks were about their practices, particular given that some of them are still actively collecting, importing, and selling rare reptiles.  Indeed, some of the book’s primary subjects now seem to regret their decision to share so much with Smith (I’ll return to this point later).

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