2011 – Page 7 – Anole Annals

Anolis carolinensis hatchling in our animal facility.

I’ve noticed that many of the anoles in my breeding colony occasionally have white protuberances emerging from their nostrils, like the two-month old hatchling to the left. I haven’t been able to determine whether these protuberances are the remnants of an old shed or whether the lizards have a fungus growing in their nostrils. By the time I catch an afflicted individual in its cage the protuberances are gone, seemingly because the lizard blew them out while moving to evade my hand. Has anyone experienced this phenomenon?

This Is Wrong on So Many Levels

By Jonathan Losos

On December 6, 2011

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor

This brings up a bigger question: why isn’t there a spokesanole for any major company?

Scantlebags: A New Innovation for Anole Field Work

By Anthony J Geneva

On December 6, 2011

In Notes from the Field

Scantlebags being used in the field.

When in the field, we often need to temporarily house many animals from multiple localities for a short period of time. While doing this, we need to keep animals healthy and track collection sites during transportation. Anole researchers have used a variety of techniques to bag and sort captured anoles and often rely on commercial reptile bags, pillow cases or plastic bags.

Thanks to the ingenuity of Dan Scantlebury and his mother, the Glor Lab has another solution: Scantlebags. Scantlebags are individually manufactured in Stone Mountain, GA to our precise specifications. They are made from white ripstop cloth material that is machine washable. By making our bags from white fabric we can also write specimen data directly on the bag with a sharpie. Each Scantlebag has a zipper closure, allowing easy access to captured animals without completely opening the bag. You’ll have to trust us when we say that dealing with zippers is much easier than trying to constantly tie and untie pillow cases. Scantlebags come in sizes ranging from a few square inches (for small anoles and Sphaeros), up to bags that are about the size of a typical pillowcase (which can temporarily accomodate ~20 small anoles). Finally, each bag has a webbing strap in one corner which allows Scantlebags to be tied to a belt, where they are easily accessible but secure from accidental loss. The strap is at the opposite end of the bag from the zipper opening because the anoles we work with tend to aggregate at the top of the bag and are less likely to escape when the bag is opened from the bottom.

How does everyone else secure animals in the field? Any ideas for Scantlebag improvements? Let us know in the comments.

The Kings of Greater Antillean Anole Taxonomy I: E. D. Cope

By Rich Glor

On December 5, 2011

In Classics from the Literature

Greater Antillean anoles would not be a model system for studies in ecology and evolutionary biology without the foundation provided by a century and a half of careful work by anole systematists. Because their contributions often go unrecognized, I thought I’d use this post to call attention to the work of some of the most important figures in Greater Antillean anole systematics. I’m going to focus here on alpha-taxonomy, and specifically on description of new species (we’ll do later posts on the history of anole phylogenetic systematics and descriptions of subspecies). The majority of the nearly 120 species of anoles found on Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico were described by five key figures and their colleagues.

Anole Annals Poetry Competition extended

By Yoel Stuart

On December 5, 2011

In All Posts

We’ve decided to extend the deadline for the poetry competition one more week. We’ve had a number of good entries but would love some more!

Holiday Gift Ideas for Anole Lovers

By edunn1205

On December 4, 2011

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor

Still looking for the perfect gifts for friends and family? Nothing says “Happy Holidays” like an anole-themed present!

For the wine connoisseur: These wine glass charms can double as necklace pendants! They are also the perfect way to spice up your holiday parties.
For the home decorator: There’s nothing better to see just as you enter a room than a charming light switch plate.
For the fashionista: These headbands are sure to be seen on the runways any day now. Who doesn’t want to look like they have an anole crawling through their hair?!
For the green thumb: If you can’t have real anoles in your garden, the next best thing is a ceramic one.
For the coffee lover: Now the caffeine addict in your life can enjoy their morning cup with an anole in hand.
For the businessman: This stylish anole tie is sure to impress the boss at the next board meeting!
For the dog: Even man’s best friend can show off his/her love for anoles.

I hope that these fool-proof gifts will ease your stress this holiday season!

Not All Embryos are Created Equal

By Thomas Sanger

On December 3, 2011

In Natural History Observations, Notes from the Field

The pages of Anole Annals were recently graced with beautiful photos of Anolis embryos (here), their allure attracting attention from far and wide (here). Unfortunately, development doesn’t always go according to plan. While slight perturbations to development can create fodder for natural selection, more extreme phenotypic mutations can create not-so-hopeful monsters (a play on R. Goldschmidt’s theory of hopeful monsters which predicts that relatively large homeotic mutations can contribute to evolutionary saltations). Several years ago I dissected this embryo of A. sagrei. Count the body parts.What do you see?

This is likely one of the most extreme mutant Anolis embryos I have collected. I regularly find dead embryos that appear normal morphologically and died for unknown causes. But this is the other extreme. This embryo clearly possesses a well-developed, seemingly normal head, limbs, and tail. It is even beginning to develop scales on the limbs and body. Without dissection I cannot be precisely sure about the nature of this mutation, but one can readily discern that there is no well-defined body axis, the head, tail, limbs all emerge from a nondescript central mass of tissue. Perhaps more interesting in this light, there also appears to be an axis duplication. Eight limbs, two tails, and two sets of hemipenes are visible, but only one head (note, only one eye is visible but both are present). Can’t see everything? Check out the labeled photos below.

Staged Anole Fights on YouTube?

By Rich Glor

On December 3, 2011

In Natural History Observations, Notes from the Field

Fights among anoles are fairly common in nature, and we’ve had several previous posts documenting anole fights captured on film (1, 2, 3, 4). A casual browsing of YouTube reveals many more anole fights, mostly between male Anolis carolinensis (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Many of these videos use the Rocky theme music to set the tone. I was really enjoying watching these videos until I got to thinking that some of them might actually be staged. I browsed the comments to see if I could figure out if the fights were staged, but didn’t come up with any definitive proof (in a few cases, I added my own comment asking directly if the fights were staged). However, there are certainly people who have commented that watching these videos has inspired them to raise fighting anoles. What do you think? Do some of these fights look staged to you?

Anolis Warfare – Pictures of an Epic Battle in Guadeloupe

By Martha Muñoz

On December 2, 2011

In Natural History Observations

Male Anolis marmoratus marmoratus from the town Capesterre in Guadeloupe.

Ali versus Frazier. Athens versus Sparta. Harry Potter versus Voldemort. History has had it share of epic battles, many of which we have documented on the Anole Annals, such as here and here. In my humble opinion, however, none of those minor scuffles can measure up to a thrilling encounter I photographed between two males of Anolis marmoratus on the island of Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe.