Anole Annals

Getting good pictures of lizard toepads in the field can be tricky. Flatbed scanners are heavy and don’t take well to transit bumps and bruises, and getting a digital camera to focus on the toe, not the glass, requires surgical precision on the manual focus ring. I’ve just found a new solution for an iPhone (or GooglePixel, if that’s how you roll), and I’m eager to share.

Here’s what you need:

An iPhone 6 or 7 series or a GooglePixel, the Moment Lens mounting case ($29.99) with the Moment Macro Lens ($89.99), a clear surface, a scale bar, your headlamp, and a laptop.

Here’s the setup in action (and, by the way, this particular lizard’s bite force was classified as medium-ouch):

You’ll notice that when the camera is facing up the iPhone screen is facing down. Obviously this makes it difficult to snap the photo—enter the app WiFiCam. This app enables you to type the phone’s IP address into your web browser and remotely trigger the camera, as long as both devices are on the same wifi. It’s very simple, and the price was right (free!).

And so here’s the whole shebang:

(Don’t forget to keep a tissue handy for wiping up lizard poop!)

And not to bury the lede, but the results are fantastic (see above).

A few things to note:

The white plastic platform around the lens ensures perfect focal distance so getting your lizard as close to that plane as possible is ideal. I tried a square of single pane glass but wasn’t tremendously pleased with the results. The above is taken with a cheap plastic petri dish, which works great but scratches quickly. Another option I’m going to look into is a glass microscope slide. (The biggest drawback to the slide is that it’s smaller than the camera lens platform… meaning that the lizard can actually poop ON YOUR PHONE. And believe me, they will.)
The app works fine for controlling the shutter, but it’d be nice to be able to also control other camera settings like focus point and brightness or contrast. There might be other apps out there that do all of that; I just haven’t tried to find them yet. If you’re taking photos of lizard toepads in a place without wifi (as you most likely are), you can use your computer to create a local network and pair the camera to the computer that way.
I found that the sidelight was really helpful to get good illumination on the toes. Without the sidelight the camera sometimes adjusts for ambient light behind the foot, making the lamellae hard to see. My headlamp was the perfect size and brightness and worked great.

One last thought: Moment also has a fisheye lens that might do a really nice job of canopy cover photos in the field. That’s on my short list of things to experiment with in the near future!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how to improve the system in the comments.

Help Identify Costa Rican Anoles

By David Weisenbeck

On August 6, 2017

In All Posts

I recently saw these four anoles on a trip to Costa Rica. All four were sighted in La Fortuna in the province of Alajuela. They were sighted on July 18th and 19th, all within a few meters of a forested stream. I have some ideas about their ID’s, but am not completely sure. Can anyone help me with their identification?

This first anole was found on a tree trunk near the stream at night, while the second one was found on a pole in the morning. Both Anolis lionotus?

This third one was found on a low shrub in the morning. Anolis limifrons?

The fourth anole was found on a low-growing shrub at night. Anolis lemurinus?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Shades of Bumpus: Polar Vortex-Induced Natural Selection on Cold Tolerance in the Green Anole

By Jonathan Losos

On August 3, 2017

In All Posts

Graphic by Julie McMahon.

Shane Campbell-Staton had fortuitously measured the thermal physiology of a number of populations of the green anole, Anolis carolinensis, the summer before 2014’s Polar Vortex. So, he went back and examined the survivors. And sure enough, in the most southerly populations, those most strongly affected by the cold snap, natural selection had occurred. Shane tells Scientific American all about it in this podcast. The nifty figure above comes from the University of Illinois’ press release.

More Information on the Knight Anole Invasion of the Turks and Caicos

By Jonathan Losos

On August 2, 2017

In All Posts

We reported recently that knight anoles (Anolis equestris) have shown up in the T&C. Here’s more on the story from B Naqqi Manco, the Terrestrial Ecologist at the Department of Environment and Maritime Affairs, Turks and Caicos Islands Government:

Cuban knight anoles are currently known from two sites on Providenciales: Vicinity of Beaches Resort in The Bight and Amanyara Resort on Northwest Point. Both populations showed up after the importation of large trees for landscaping from Miami. The properties are both irrigated pretty heavily to keep the bigger trees going. The tree imports were brought in before the Department of Agriculture was fully operative, so unfortunately things got in at that time that probably shouldn’t have made it through.

I don’t have confirmation of the knight anoles breeding, but I know The Bight population has been spreading with individuals having been found on adjacent properties and in a nearby residential neighbourhood. I would be very surprised if they’re not breeding on either site. Unfortunately we don’t have the capacity to monitor them well but this is something we want to keep a closer eye on and it would make a worthwhile research project for a student or intern.

Thus far, they have not been reported from any other island or cay.

New Paper Says Anoles Are the Reason for Dave Wake’s Career-Long Focus on Salamanders

By Jonathan Losos

On July 30, 2017

In All Posts

Dave Wake: the younger years

The paper, by Nancy Staub and Rachel Mueller and just out in Copeia, is a delightful biography of DBW, as he is referred to by his lab and many others. As for the anole bit, you’ll have to read it to find out.

Happening Now: The Latin American Congress of Herpetology

By Anthony J Geneva

On July 27, 2017

In New Research

The 11th Latin American Congress of Herpetology is underway right now at the Museo de Zoología QCAZ at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Although I could not attend, I have been following the meeting vicariously as attendees have been using the Twitter hashtag #latinherps to document the meeting. From those tweets alone, it appears the meeting has featured a series of fantastic talks, including many on anoles. If you are not a Twitter user you can still follow along by clicking more below to see all tweets from the Congress. Finally to Congress attendees, if any of you are interested, it would be great to have you contribute Anole Annals posts (or even comments below) on talks from the meeting.

Knight Anoles Introduced to Turks and Caicos

By Jonathan Losos

On July 25, 2017

In All Posts

We’ve previously reported on Anolis equestris introduced to the Bahamas and elsewhere, and brown anoles (A. sagrei) introduced to Turks and Caicos. Now the knight anole is in T&C and people are worried about the impact they may have.

Eh? What’s that? Anolis cristatellus Lacking an External Ear. Also, One Getting Eaten by a Knight Anole and a Brown Anole Eaten by a Warbler

By Jonathan Losos

On July 23, 2017

In All Posts

Read all about it in the (almost) latest from the October 2016 issue of Herpetological Review.

JMIH 2017: Anole Morphology Round-up: Comparing Gecko and Anole Toepads and Patterns of Embryonic Limb Development in Diverse Lizards

By Chris Thawley

On July 21, 2017

In All Posts

Travis in the Dominican Republic with Anolis fowleri. Photo by Luke Mahler.

Two recent talks at JMIH 2017 shed light on key morphological characters in anoles: toe pad shape and limb length. Travis Hagey presented his work which looks to shed light on why lizard toe pads are shaped the way that they are and addresses whether gecko and anole toe pads are convergent structures. Working with a team of undergraduates, Travis used geometric morphometrics to analyze the structure of toepads in a diverse group of geckos and anoles. Travis found that anole and gecko toe pads have a similar range of values for traits such as the placement of pads on the toes and the shape of the toes (skinny or fat) in relation to claws. However, anole toe pads formed a distinct cluster indicating that they occupy a unique area of trait space not used by geckos. This finding suggests that the divergent evolutionary history of anoles and geckos has resulted in independent evolutionary explorations of toe pad shape.

Immediately following Travis’ talk, Robin Andrews presented work investigating the embryological development of morphological characters in diverse lizard species. In anoles, consistent differences in the morphology of divergent species support the existence of different anole ecomorphs. Previous research by Sanger and colleagues has shown that the differences in limb-length between anoles of different ecomorphs have their origins early in embryonic development. These early differences in limb length continue throughout the development of anoles into hatchlings and adult forms, a pattern known as transpositional allometry.

Robin compared patterns of limb, tail, and head growth in early stage embryos of four different lizard species, including a chameleon, two geckos, and the brown anole (Anolis sagrei). She found that species-specific differences in limb and tail lengths were exhibited as soon as limb and tail buds emerged from the body and were both best characterized by the same pattern, transpositional allometry. Embryonic head growth, however, showed no specific pattern. Robin’s findings suggest that the adaptive evolution of adult morphology in anole ecomorphs as well as other diverse lizard species is underpinned by developmental reprogramming.

Travis Hagey, Jordan Garcia, Oacia Fair, Nikki Cavalieri, and Barb Lundrigan: Variation in Lizard Adhesive Toe Pad Shape
Robin Andrews: Developmental Origin of Limb Size Variation in Lizards

JMIH 2017: Nobody Gets Tired of Looking for Anoles!

By mjohnson216

On July 20, 2017

In New Research

Amy Yackely Adams presents at JMIH 2017.

Amy Yackel Adams presents at JMIH 2017.

All anole field biologists have been there, right? It’s the middle of the night, and you’re walking around the forest searching for sleeping lizards in the trees. You’re probably wearing a headlamp, so the bugs are flying around your face, and your eyes start to strain as you get sleepy and you’re entering hour three or four of the search. This searcher fatigue could lead to the kinds of unintentional bias that can interfere with our research. But there’s good news when it comes to anoles, as Amy Yackel Adams, a statistician with the USGS in Fort Collins, Colorado, reported on the last day of JMIH.

Dr. Yackel Adams works with a Rapid Response Team whose goal is to prevent the spread of the worst invasive species. When a report came in of a sighting of a brown tree snake on the island of Saipan (in the Northern Mariana Islands, western Pacific Ocean), the team of experienced herpers deployed to Saipan and began intensive nightly surveys to assess the possibility of a brown tree snake population there. Luckily, they didn’t find any of these snakes in the surveys, but they did log 20,000+ sightings of other vertebrates! These included emerald tree skinks, several species of geckos, a variety of small mammals, and the green anole (Anolis carolinensis). Dr. Yackel Adams saw an opportunity to use this rich dataset to statistically test for two types of bias that could occur in such surveys – searcher fatigue (both across the 4-hour nightly searches, and across the up-to-31 day deployment), and searcher bias in taxon detection.

The team of 29 searchers covered a total of 387 km of transects during the 31 days, and found a total of 5,800 sleeping green anoles during this time. (Wow!!) In terms of short-term searcher fatigue, there was a slight decrease in tree skink and mammal sightings as the night progresses, and gecko sightings were generally stable over the night, but far MORE green anoles were sighted in the later hours of the night. And over the long term, skinks and anoles were MORE likely to be detected the more nights a searcher worked, and there was no evidence of long-term searcher fatigue. So, that’s why my take-home message was “nobody gets tired of looking for anoles!”

There was, however, significant taxonomic bias among the searchers – for example, the skink-to-anole sighting ratios ranged from 0.86 to 9.5. Dr. Yackel Adams concluded that this type of bias could be a real problem for certain kinds of studies, and we should be aware that differences among sightings by our survey team members could be potentially problematic in statistical analyses.