Anole Annals

T-shirts photographed in gift shops in the Santo Domingo airport (left and center), and a guy wearing a Punta Cana iguana t-shirt photographed during a layover in Atlanta (right).

We’ve previously discussed how difficult it is to find gifts featuring anoles (aside from some cafepress fare). Even more depressing is the fact that introduced green iguanas (Iguana iguana) are regular features on gift shop fare in the Dominican Republic, a country with one of the coolest of all anole faunas. Heck, there aren’t even shirts with the native rock iguanas (Cyclura)! We really need to recruit an entrepreneur to start making Dominican paraphenalia featuring endemic wildlife.

Zig First, Then Zag.

By Yoel Stuart

On September 15, 2011

In Natural History Observations, Notes from the Field

This female Anolis carolinensis has a tail that is kinked in a zig-zag fashion, starting from what seems to be the proximal autotomization point and continuing distally along the tail. The kinks are permanent. Running the tail between one’s fingers fails to smooth out the zig-zags. Have any anoleologists out there seen this growth pattern before? Any idea what might cause it? Additional photos and an x-ray are after the jump.

Predation on Anoles – A Revisit to the Turks and Caicos

By Graham Reynolds

On September 14, 2011

In Notes from the Field

Snake food! A young Anolis scriptus

To revisit an earlier post, here is some more information about the Southern Bahamas Anole, Anolis scriptus. In the Turks and Caicos Islands, this species is a crucial component of the terrestrial herpetofauana… as prey for other reptiles!

Readers of this blog might wish to avoid graphic details about anoles being eaten, but it is important to reflect on the role that these species play in ecosystems and energy cycles. In the Turks and Caicos, anoles are consumed by two endemic snakes, as well as curly-tailed lizards.

An Anole Murder Mystery?

By Miguel Landestoy

On September 13, 2011

In Anole Annals Trivia, Natural History Observations

Looking through old image files I found the above picture. At first glance, this may look like an unearthed fossil. No way. Try to earn some points by answering the questions below:

Which species is this?
What happened to it (cause of death)?
Where (within the DR) or in which type of habitat did this take place (this is linked to #1 and #2)?
What is the dark patch in the background/horizon, located in the upper right of picture (linked to #2 and #3).

Amazing Anole Fight Caught on Film

By Rich Glor

On September 12, 2011

In Natural History Observations, Notes from the Field

Fights between male anoles in nature can get pretty serious. A few dramatic anole fight videos have already been posted on-line, including some mentioned previously on anole annals ([1], [2]). Recently, I posted photos from a fight we saw this summer on a rock along the Rio Bani between two males of A. d. ravitergum. This was the most dramatic anole fight I’ve ever seen, with the males tumbling head over heels down a boulder while locked in combat. The fight ended with one male skulking off and the other proudly displaying from atop the boulder. Now, Shea Lambert has posted his video of the fight on YouTube (Shea aptly added background music from the classic video game Mortal Kombat). This video was taken with a point and shoot digital camera, so the quality isn’t the greatest, but Shea did a great job capturing all of the acrobatics! To quote Shea immediately after the fight: “That dark anole is a straight-up ninja.”

Another Anole-Packed Issue of Reptiles & Amphibians

By Jonathan Losos

On September 12, 2011

In Anoles and Anolologists in the News

As with the previous issue, the just released September number of IRCF Reptiles & Amphibians: Conservation and Natural History is a bonanza for anoliphiles. The photo above is from the inside back cover, relating to the article on Cuban herps that features several fine anole photos. There’s also an article on herping in the Dominican Republic and another on the reptiles of San Salvador island, Bahamas. As always, the photos are sumptuous.

Variation in Population Density in Anolis Aeneus on Union Island

By Jonathan Losos

On September 10, 2011

In New Research

: Anolis aeneus. Photo from http://www.kingsnake.com/westindian/anolisaeneus5.JPG.

Surprisingly few studies have examined how anole population density varies geographically, much less trying to explain why. In a recent study, McTaggart and colleagues surveyed herpetological abundance across Union Island (8.4 km²) in the Grenadines (near Grenada). Anolis aeneus was by far the most abundant herp on the island and was found almost everywhere. However, its abundance did vary from 0 to 62 individuals seen in visual encounters performed during the course of a morning and an afternoon. The sites lacking A. aeneus were a mangrove and a transect from a scrubby coastal hillock to a beach; overall, anole abundance was strongly correlated with vegetational complexity (categorized based on the number and variety of trees, height and connectedness of the canopy, and extent of human disturbance), perhaps not surprising for an arboreal lizard often found high in trees.

A Drawing of Anolis Roosevelti

By Jonathan Losos

On September 9, 2011

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor

Genny Wilson, a certified medical illustrator (check out her work here), has tried to imagine what Anolis roosevelti, not seen for 80 years, might have looked like in life. This is her latest version. Have any thoughts or suggestions? Add a comment, or email her directly at hagginwilson@earthlink.net.

Notes from a Common Garden Experiment

By Yoel Stuart

On September 8, 2011

In New Research, Research Methods

The cages in which females are individually housed during the common garden experiment. Each cage has a bamboo perch and a plant in potting soil where the lizard can lay her eggs.

We are in the midst of a common garden experiment in which we’ve taken gravid Anolis carolinensis females from morphologically differentiated populations in the wild and returned with them to the lab where we are collecting eggs to incubate and hatch. Obviously I needed some gardening tools to pull this off, so I headed to bestofmachinery.com to get some since our local hardware burned down and still under construction. We’d eventually like to know whether the offspring of these females maintain the differentiation observed in the wild under common growth conditions. If yes, this is good evidence that the differences we’ve observed are a result of genetic changes among populations, rather than phenotypic plasticity during development and growth. A few notes from this ongoing experiment follow.

headed

bestofmachinery.com

What Do You Get When You Combine Three Lizards and a Chicken?

By Rich Glor

On September 7, 2011

In Anole Genome Research, New Research

Anolis carolinensis (http://www.birderslounge.com/2008/07/green-anole-amore/), A. marmoratus (from willy.ramaekers flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27048739@N02/), Polychrus marmoratus (from Pierson Hills flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nclarkii/), chickens (from http://ww.animalpicturesarchive.com/)

New primers for sequencing nuclear loci from Anolis!

Availability of genomic loci for sequencing has long been a major stumbling block to evolutionary inference in non-model taxa. In anoles, for example, several decades of work relied almost exclusively on mitochondrial DNA. As part of the Anole genome sequencing initiative, my lab group collaborated with the Broad Institute to identify conserved primers that can be used to amplify nuclear loci from across Anolis. We ultimately tested 200+ primer pairs, most of which were identified by comparing the genome of Anolis carolinensis to genomic data from two related lizards (Anolis marmoratus and Polychrus marmoratus) and the chicken (others came from recent work in the Jackman lab).