Which Museum Has The Most Anoles?

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On March 27, 2012

In Anole Annals Trivia

Rich Glor recently put up a fascinating post on the enormous number of Anolis specimens deposited in the natural history museum at the University of Kansas, which got me thinking: which natural history museums house the most anole specimens? I’ve got the answer (you can, too, if you go to Herpnet, but what fun is that?): Who can name the top five? One caveat: apparently the holdings from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology are not available. I supplemented my studies by going to the British Museum’s website, and I think all the other major players are on Herpnet, though would welcome news to the contrary.

So, here’s a bit of information, a hint of sorts: the leading institution has nearly twice as many specimens as the second place depository, which in turn has more than half again as many as the third, which is barely ahead of the fourth and the fifth.

And here’s something else: very few museums have any specimens registered under the generic name Norops. I’m not saying that the proposal to split Anolis into multiple genera is dead (see here), but clearly it didn’t get a lot of traction in the museum world. Oddly, though, one of the bastion’s of anti-Norops sentiment, the Museum of Comparative Zoology, has 75 Norops. We’ll have to see how long that stands.

Any way, have at it. Top 5: Which are they?

Anoles on Postage Stamps–Who Knew There Were So Many?

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On March 26, 2012

In Anoles in Commerce

Uwe Bartelt of Germany clearly enjoys the distinction of being the world’s greatest collector of anole postage stamps. Presented below are the highlights of his collection. Who knew there were so many anole stamps? What a wondrous exhibition! Click on each stamp to get a close-up view. More info below.

Uwe says this about his collection:

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Mystery Lizard: It’s Sitana!

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On March 24, 2012

In Anole Annals Trivia

 

No flies on you guys. I put up a mystery “lizard”—note: not “anole”—with a beautiful white dewlap and the trademark diamondback pattern of a female anole, but few were fooled and it was quickly identified as the southeast Asian agamid lizard, Sitana ponticeriana. The dead giveaway—if you want to be technical—is the presence of only four toes on the hindfoot.

This species—or very possibly a complex of species—shows remarkable geographic variability in dewlap color. See the gorgeous red, black and blue one here. They’re even said to change color seasonally, from blue to white, but I’m not sure how well-established that is.

This photograph comes from J.N. Trivedi’s fascinating 2010 Master’s Dissertation entitled “Study of courtship behaviour of Fan – throated lizard Sitana ponticeriana in scrublands of Vadodara city Gujarat.”

Enormous Dewlaps, Mainland-Style

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On March 23, 2012

In Natural History Observations

Anolis chloris. Photo by Luke Mahler

A recent post extolled the size of the dewlap of the Hispaniolan A. christophei, but a number of readers, myself included, suggested that to find a truly humongous dewlap, you need to go to the mainland. And all one needs to do is look at the wondrous A. chloris pictured above to see that that is true. I challenge any Anole Annals reader to show me a photo of a Caribbean anole strutting his stuff so gynormously.

Still don’t believe me? Here are a few more.

Left to right, top row: unidentified Central American anole (ID, anyone?) from http://rhamphotheca.tumblr.com/post/1322893581/male-anolis-lizard-displaying-dewlap; A. polylepis from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anolis_polylepis,_Costa_Rica.JPG Steven J. Johnson; bottom row: A. gemmosus from James Christensen's spectacular flicker site, http://www.flickr.com/people/primevalnature/; unidentified anole from http://www.morley-read.com/frogs_on_line/telimbela/lizards/source/dscn8660.html; and A. frenatus also from Christensen's flickr site.

As far as I’m aware, no one has conducted a quantitative study to compare dewlap sizes among mainland and Caribbean anoles. Sounds like a good project for someone!

More importantly, though, why do the largest dewlaps occur on the mainland? Perhaps it has something to do with the relatively low population densities and low rates of display of mainland anoles? Another project waiting to be conducted.

Happy Birthday, ANSP!

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On March 21, 2012

In All Posts

The Centenary celebration at the Academy of Natural Sciences... The bicentenary will be a far less formal affair.

Two hundred years ago today a group of seven prominent Philadelphians: two physicians, a dentist, an apothecary, a manufacturing chemist, a distiller and naturalist Thomas Say formally founded the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the first natural history museum in North American. Today and for the next year the Academy will hold events celebrating its long history of contribution to natural history research.

Over the past 200 years the Academy has played a continuing role in advancing natural history research from the myriad contributions of entomologist/malacologist/ herpetologist Thomas Say, to Ruth Patrick‘s work testing the predictions MacArthur and Wilson‘s theory of island biogeography, and Ted Daeschler’s co-discovery and analysis of transitional fish-tetrapod fossils. This being Anole Annals, read on for a summary of the Academy’s contributions to the anole world…

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What Species Is It?

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On March 20, 2012

In Natural History Observations

Female (on left) and male (on right). Tough one. Good luck. Check back for a hint in a few days if no one nails it.

The Old Man and the Lizard: Hemingway’s Anole

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On March 19, 2012

In All Posts

Can someone please identify this lizard to species?  Is it an anole?

The preserved lizard, and the bat next to it, are sitting on a shelf in Ernest Hemingway’s bathroom, which I visited this past January.  (Okay, I visited his estate and former home near Havana, Cuba, but you can’t actually step inside the house so I had to take the photograph–with my iPhone–through the open bathroom window.)

As everyone knows, Hemingway was a consummate sportsman, fisherman and hunter.  He especially was a fan of big game; many trophy heads of large African mammals decorate the walls of his living room.  Surely, however, there is no bigger game than the giant lizard shown here.  I presume that it was taken on his estate, but as far as I can tell there is no collecting tag or other kind of identifying label and nobody whom I asked could shed any additional light.  Indeed, no one else whom I was with had even noticed the two prize specimens sitting in adjacent jars.

For more information about the estate, look here: <http://www.hemingwaycuba.com/finca-la-vigia.html>.

Thanks very much.

Veragua Rainforest: An Anole Mecca

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On March 18, 2012

In Notes from the Field

 

One of the many frogs at the Veragua Rainforest preserve. The frog diversity is so great, it almost rivals the anoles in interest. Photo from http://veraguarainforest.com/research/imagenes/overview_small.jpg

Fresh from our four day foray at La Selva, our class of intrepid herpetologists moved east to the Veragua Rainforest Research & Adventure Park. Take one glance at their website, and you’d think this is some tacky tourist trap. But you’d be wrong. Only four years old, this multi-purpose venue is a wonderful place for biodiversitistas of any sort. Admittedly, a bit too touristy at first glance—the place is a regular stop for cruise ship passengers to take a break from playing online slots at casinos in Colorado at EasyMobileCasino.com and to disembark for the day at the port city of Limon. The facility has excellent educational displays with wonderful live collections of frogs (in the Ranario), reptiles (Reptilio), butterflies and other insects. Not to mention the ziplines, which we were duty bound to use in our quest to locate canopy dwelling lizards (one probable A. lemurinus was cited approximately 25 meters high on a tree trunk).

But Veragua is much more than a fun place to stop-over.

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More Cristatellus Adventures in Costa Rica

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On March 17, 2012

In Notes from the Field

Brown basilisk. Photo from http://www.naturephoto-cz.com/photos/sevcik/brown-basilisk--_DSC9899.jpg

A little more than a year ago, this correspondent trekked to the eastern coast of Costa Rica to chronicle the spread of the invasive Puerto Rican anole, A. cristatellus. Introduced to the Caribbean port city of Limon many moons ago, we found that the crested anole has made its way down the coast to the vicinity of the Panamanian border, and speculated that it may also have crossed the bridge to the Land of the Canal. In addition, it has spread inland to the west, as far and as high as the town of Turrialba and, at lower elevations, to Siquirres, 60 km from Limon. However, 37 km further west, we failed to find it in Guapiles, though our visit was late in the day. Given its widespread occurrence at low-to-mid elevations, we predicted that the Puerto Ricans may some day advance far to the north and west, trampling through the Tortuguero area to Nicaragua and who knows how far westward?

Taking advantage of our herpetology class sojourn to Costa Rica, I led an intrepid expedition comprised of a freshman, a sophomore, and a graduate student to head eastward from the La Selva Biological Station to determine just how far these lizards have advanced.

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Anoles As A Model System To Study Reproductive Biology

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On March 14, 2012

In New Research

Anolis carolinensis mating. Photo by Michele Johnson from Wade (2012). Insets: Upper, vertebral column of green anole around pelvis and tail; lower, hemipenis musculature.

Juli Wade has just published a review paper in which she sings the praises of anoles as a group to study the integration of behavior, anatomy, endocrinology and molecular mechanisms in vertebrate reproduction. She notes that a number of model systems exhibit, but synthesis is hindered because courtship and copulatory systems have been studied in different groups and, among studies of courtship biology, very disparate structures have been examined (e.g., bird syrinxes, frog larynxes, fish swim bladders) making comparative analysis difficult.

Anoles to the rescue! Wade notes: “Anoles offer some advantages over these other model systems. A long history of research into the hormones, brain and behavior exists for one species, the green anole (Anolis carolinensis), and a substantial amount of data is also available for the brown anole (A. sagrei). These studies indicate that the hormonal regulation of behavior appears quite similar in these two species of anoles. The genome of the green anole has recently been sequenced, which greatly facilitates investigations at the molecular level. Two features, however, provide unique power for the investigation of mechanisms regulating structure and function.

First, three sexually dimorphic systems exist within the same individuals – portions of the limbic forebrain, which control higher level or more motivational aspects of sexual behavior, and both courtship and copulatory neuromuscular systems, all of which lend themselves to investigations in the field and laboratory. Second, more than 350 species of anole lizards span the Southeastern US, Caribbean islands and Central and South America. Information on the behavioral ecology and phylogenetic history of many of these is accessible. And, while limited data on the neural and muscular structures regulating courtship and copulation are currently available, it is clear that species across the genus exhibit beautiful variation in the degree of sexual dimorphism in morphology on a gross level. Anole lizards therefore represent a terrific opportunity for more detailed investigations from an evolutionary perspective.”

 

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