Anole Annals

Back in September, we saw an Anolis carolinensis with a bizarre skeletal anomaly, the zig-zag tail. Several readers commented that this was quite a common trait, especially among captive lizards. I wanted to continue this theme with a curious Anolis cybotes specimen I found while CT scanning.

This image of a volume rendering of the skeleton shows a typical A. cybotes male pelvis, where the ilia articulates with the sacral vertebrae (denoted by arrow).

Now, the image below shows R186747, a male A. cybotes collected by Luke Mahler in the Dominican Republic. The lateral process of the first tail vertebrae has been adopted to form the sacrum on the left side, while the right remains standard, and the right side of the pubis appears to have an old healed fracture.

My First Field Expedition

By Asa Conover

On November 23, 2011

In Notes from the Field

Miguel Landestoy's "Tank"

Hello everyone! My name is Asa Conover, I am a student at Stuyvesant High School in New York, and this is my first post on AA. This summer I accompanied Martha Muñoz and Maureen Stimola on their trip to the Dominican Republic to investigate thermoregulation at different altitudes. I did elementary fieldwork with anoles when I was 8. On a family trip to Naples, Florida, I caught a bunch with my hands. I was too sad to part with them when we left so my dad permitted me to take a few home (I apologize to any who frown upon this). At home we set up a proper terrarium with a small tree and a heat lamp. Shortly afterwards, as we were replacing the mulch, we found an egg. This was the first of many. The anoles bred rapidly and before they became too many to handle, we sent them all back to Florida with a neighbor.

Honey Holes and Rare Anoles

By Daniel Scantlebury

On November 22, 2011

In Notes from the Field

Saludos desede la República Dominicana!

Male Anolis fowleri

I’m just past the middle of a 6 week trip to the eastern half of Hispaniola to collect specimens and ecological data for geckos of the genus Sphaerodactylus as part of my thesis work. I’m here for the most part with photographer, naturalist, and fellow adventurer Miguel Landestoy. We’ve had a number of ups and downs already and I figured it is time to share some photos from one of our first nigths in the field when we stumbled upon a honey hole of rare anoles. Since Anolis fowleri is such a rarely seen and poorly known beast, here are some photos of a pair and their habitat. (sorry to keep this post short, but I’m here for geckos after all and am completely exhausted)

Another Anolis Sagrei Sighting in Savannah, Georgia

By Allison DeVan

On November 22, 2011

In Introduced Anoles

This past weekend, I came across one A. sagrei perched on a building in Savannah, Georgia. It appears that this introduced lizard’s invasion is spreading north from Florida.

Curly Tail Lizard Attempts to Consume Anole

By Rich Glor

On November 22, 2011

In Natural History Observations

Leiocephalus macropus attempts to consume a juvenile A. jubar in southwestern Cuba. Photos copyright R. Glor 2000.

Anole Annals has a long, gut-wrenching history of posting photographs of our favorite lizards being consumed (or at least partially consumed) by other organisms, including snakes (1, 2, 3), birds (1, 2, 3), other anoles (1, 2), a frog, a spider, and even a plant. As far as I can tell, however, we have yet to post any images of anoles being eaten by one of their fiercest predators across the northern Caribbean: Curly-tailed lizards (Leiocephalus). Curly-tails are notorious anole predators and can have a profound impact on anole abundance and behavior (see for, example, Losos et al. 2004). The photos above were taken in southeastern Cuba and show Leiocepalus macropus killing and attempting to eat a juvenile Anolis jubar. Manuel Leal initially spotted the Leio plucking the young anole off a tree trunk. Although the Leio successfully killed the anole and got it part way into its mouth, it seemingly wasn’t able to swallow its intended prey (at least not until we interrupted the event).

Anole Annals Poetry Competition

By Yoel Stuart

On November 21, 2011

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor

Clockwise from top left: Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, John Keats, and You

What do all these people have in common? Well, they’re all poets in case you didn’t know it. On Nov. 21 2009, two years ago to the day, Jonathan Losos contributed the first Anole Annals blog post. The post contained a few of my Anolis themed haikus including:

Poe named an anole
williamsmittermeieror’m:
Ponder, weak, weary.
AND
Perched on a warm day,
Dewlap dewlap dewlap dew –
Blackbird predation.

In celebration of two years and 369 anole-related posts that followed, Anole Annals is hosting a poetry slam for all you anole wordsmiths out there.

Over the next two weeks, we challenge you to create a poem or poems in any form (e.g. haiku, limerick, sonnet, lyric, quatrain etc.). The only requirement is that they relate to anoles in some way.

Anolis – Now in 3D!

By Emma Sherratt

On November 18, 2011

In Research Methods

Jumping on the 3D bandwagon that has infested Hollywood, I wanted to introduce the Anole Annals community to the newest tool being employed to study Anole diversity and evolution, High Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography, or CT scanning for short.

HRXCT is a tool that uses x-rays to visualize the internal geometries of opaque objects. It is similar to the CAT scan you would get at a hospital, but with high-power x-rays so higher resolution. It is perfect for museum specimens because it is non-destructive; you can study skeletal morphology without removing skin or flesh, unlike the skeletonizing or clearing and staining methods as previously described here. In this first blog post on HRXCT of anoles, I shall explain how the scan process works and how the data are collected.

Evolution of a Lizard Room, Part V: The Shopvac

By Rich Glor

On November 18, 2011

In Research Methods

Using a Shopvac can really speed-up cleaning dirty cricket cages (left) and also help knock-down spider populations (right).

As we’ve discussed previously in our series on the evolution of a lizard room, some little tools and tricks can save you lots of time when maintaining a reasonably large lizard breeding facility. One useful new tool that we added to our lizard maintenance repertoire a few months ago was a Shopvac. We purchased a 3-gallon Shopvac model for around $60 with the initial goal of using it primarily for clearing substrate from the bottom of dirty lizard and cricket cages. The Shopvac works like a charm for this purpose. We no longer have to endure awkward and time-consuming cleaning sessions that involve tipping unwieldy cages into a garbage bin. Another unforeseen use of the Shopvac is to knock-down the massive population of spiders that persists on a diet of our feeder crickets. Sucking up spiders, spider webs and spider eggs is much easier than trying to knock them down with your hands or a broom (at the end of the process you also get the satisfaction of looking into the Shopvac’s dustbin and seeing all the hundreds of spiders and spider egg cases that you’ve taken down). In my view, the money we spent on the Shopvac was money well spent.

Marking Techniques for Population Studies

By Yoel Stuart

On November 17, 2011

In Research Methods

A grass bush anole, Anolis olssoni, from the Dominican Republic. Note the three colored beads sewed into the tail musculature for easy identification in the field. Photo by Michele Johnson.

Many studies of natural selection, behavioral ecology, and population biology in anoles focus on one to several populations over the course of days, weeks, or months. These studies require reliable identification of individual lizards over time. I describe several ID’ing methods in this post. Read on!

Anolis Flickr Pool – Anolis Decorus

By Anthony J Geneva

On November 17, 2011

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor

the altercation by Flickr user Dixie Native

I recently stumbled across a Flickr pool dedicated to beautiful images of anoles – Anolis Decorus. From the pool’s description:

Photographs of anole lizards. This group is open to all, but a very high standard will be maintained so please submit only your best photographs. No photographs of dead or dying lizards please. The emphasis of the photograph should be on the lizard (ergo: please post photographs of Anole lizards, not photographs with lizards in them).

Some AA bloggers (and I assume readers) have contributed images. The pool includes a diverse array of Anolis species and includes some stunning photography. The picture above is yet another example of carolinensis/sagrei encounters like that posted previously here. Overall there are some really high quality images, check them out.