Urbanization was a big theme at SICB 2020 this year, and studies of how city life influences wildlife populations are really important to help us understand the effects of human activity on natural environments and animals. One of the most rapid ways in that city-dwelling animals can adapt to these new environments is by changing the shape and size of various morphological traits.

Anoles in their natural habitat do tend to be tree-dwelling, or arboreal lizards, and they spend a lot of time climbing to find food resources, regulate their body temperature, and do other ecological activities. A lizard that relies so much on climbing performance frequently uses its claws and toe pads in its climbing ventures, so one of the first changes that city anoles might exhibit is changes in toe pad or claw shape to better climb on slick city surfaces (say that 3 times fast!). To get at this question, Bailey Howell from the Mississippi University for Women, along with her co-authors Travis Hagey and Kristin Winchell, compared urban crested anoles (Anolis cristatellus) to forested crested anoles and found that toe pads in urban anoles are longer and wider than toe pads from lizards in natural environments.

Bailey goes on to discuss that these toe pads that have an increased area might be better for urban anoles to climb on slicker and smoother substrates found in city environments. Bailey is going to continue adding to her dataset by incorporating more anoles and testing additional hypotheses such as measuring performance differences between urban and forested anoles. Stay tuned for more urban anole work!

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