Hello there. I’m here to bring a bright spot to your day with a little weird lizard, as you do.
Anolis maynardi, is endemic to Little Cayman in the Cayman Islands and introduced to Cayman Brac, and while it looks like a few of the other anoles in the carolinensis series, this one has a really long nose. It also can have striping (marbling?) along its body.
This one even has checkering!
Like the other anoles, it is capable of a dark phase. I think this is one of the better ones I’ve seen.
Its been noted that they feed on nectar like a few other anoles too. The Little Cayman Green anole has a yellow dewlap and was (hilariously) described as “…apparently stupid…” in The Herpetology of Cayman Islands (1940) by Chapman Grant.
Its elongated snout is described as pincer- or tweezer-like, and possibly aids in catching flying prey.
Like with the other anoles in this group, female Little Cayman Green anoles have smaller, more proportional heads to their bodies.
A study looking at the population of these anoles on Little Cayman and the introduced population on Cayman Brac, found that the Cayman Brac population had a higher bite force. The morphological differences between the two populations may have occurred for a few reasons. Check it out!
- #DidYouAnole – Anolis allogus - December 24, 2021
- #DidYouAnole – Anolis gundlachi - November 12, 2021
- #DidYouAnole – Anolis phyllorhinus - November 5, 2021
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