Anolis Maynardi Tail Display

Anolis maynardi confrontation. Photo by Pat Shipman

AA‘s correspondent in the Little Cayman bureau, Pat Shipman, reports:

We are in Little Cayman, greatly enjoying our anoles (maynardi & sagrei).  This morning we observed an interesting confrontation between two large, presumed male maynardi.  Not only were they head bobbing and flashing their dewlaps at each other, but they put their tails UP and pivoted their whole bodies forwards & back. The lower one in this snap is showing the tail up posture with dewlap.  Unfortunately it doesn’t show the rocking motion. We had not seen this rocking or pivoting posture before.

The second snap is a maynardi showing its ability to go dark.

Does anyone know how large a territory A. maynardihas? We see them quite regularly in the same places, day after day.

Dark A. maynardi. Photo by Pat Shipman

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Jonathan Losos

Professor of Biology and Director of the Living Earth Collaborative at Washington University in Saint Louis. I've spent my entire professional career studying anoles and have discovered that the more I learn about anoles, the more I realize I don't know.

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