Photo courtesy Paul Richards
Paul Richards and Kirsten Nicholson found this unusual knight anole while conducting their radio-tracking study on this magnificent species. Richards recalls: “I think we found him on the west edge of the “microbiome” of the Gifford Arboretum. I recall showing it to a well known herpetologist who claimed it was a temporary color change, so we held it overnight. It looked identical in the morning and we released it. I honestly can not remember if we bead tagged it or not (that would be stupid but…). We never saw that individual again, but I also cannot recall how far into the study we were, so our regular searches could have ended soon after. Local lizard fanciers have told me they have seen these color morphs before, so it is apparently somewhat common.”
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Ramon E. Martinez-Grimaldo
wow!!!! it’s amazing
Rich Glor
Somebody should get a sample for histological and molecular analyses.
gabriel gartner
Interesting. There is a population of Morelia viridis from Kofiau Islant off the coast of New Guinea that are very similar. The adults maintain their juvenile bright yellow coloration with a smattering of green scales. I wouldn’t be surprised if the structural cause of this increased yellow coloration was similar in both…
Ben Siegel
very cool animal–would love to have a couple of them–here is a pic of one of mine