View of the Andean scrubland, the main habitat of the lizards of the Anolis heterodermus group. Credits: Rafael Moreno.
Several years ago, when I began my biology studies, I was taking a walk in an Andean scrubland near my hometown, Bogotá, and while admiring the twisted shapes of the shrub branches, I noticed a small bright-green elongated spot on a branch, which stood out from the surrounding vegetation. The spot looked like an altered vision produced by entheogenic substances. As I approached the spot, my anxiety increased because it was slowly rotating around the small branch while I was getting closer. But when I was close enough to identify it, my anxiety ceased. It was not a hallucination, but a lizard, an Anolis heterodermus!
Some years later, my anxiety returned when I thought about the future of those lizards due to the advance of a gigantic city hungry for concrete. We decided to investigate it by trying to document the dynamics of populations in scrublands surrounding Bogotá. Even though the city continued its inexorable growth, it seemed that these lizards had several strategies to face the loss and fragmentation of their habitat, but only if the urban development onslaught was not too strong. Thus, my anxiety ceased, but only partially.
A small sample of the huge phenotypic diversity in A. heterodermus y A. richteri. Credits: Rafael Moreno.
And I say partially because while I captured, marked, and recaptured these lizards, I also wondered why one species could exhibit such a disproportionate variety of forms, sizes, and colors. I calmed down when realized that Emmett Dunn and James Lazell probably felt the same when facing that huge phenotypic diversity as well as other researchers who, with the advent of the molecular era, expressed that diversity in what we know today as the species complex. Following the ideas of the new molecular era, we studied that species complex and found at least three independent evolutionary lineages in a very small geographic area. However, the uncertainty of the disproportionate variation in colors and shapes remained, so we decided to face it and tried to reveal the diversity of that species complex that the Colombian biologist Miguel Méndez beautifully called “The highest kingdom of Anolis.“
The relationships among some species of anoles of the heterodermus group. Figure modified from Moreno-Arias et al. (2023).
In our last research “Revealing anole diversity in the highlands of the Northern Andes: New and resurrected species of the Anolis heterodermus species group,” the task of gathering different lines of evidence was straightforward on paper thanks to the many people supported us (Anthony Herrel, Juan Manuel Daza and Belisario Cepeda and other colleges that provide specimens, tissues, and photos of the species), but organizing and analyzing the data was not so easy, and it took us several years to do it. We expanded the molecular sampling, including other species of the “kingdom” (more formally the clade Phenacosurus), and documented at least nine independently evolved lineages. We identified groups of lizards based on their morphometry, combining lizards with short-to-long legs, thin-to-wide toes, and small to large bodies.
Crowns of some species of heterodermus group. Credits: A. quimbaya Wilmar Bolívar, remaining species Rafael Moreno.
We also identified groups based on scale counts that combined lizards with more or fewer scales on their head and dorsum, and groups of lizards based on their scale pattern that combined lizards with U or V-shaped crowns, rows of scales of different sizes under their lips, and continuous or discontinuous nuchal crests. Although less clear than the previous lines of evidence, the body color pattern ranged from lizards with a predominance of uniform color patterns to lizards with beautiful color combinations. The most interesting grouping was the one based on the color pattern of the dewlap, which was close-matched with the geographical distribution of lizards and their evolutionary history.
Summary of the phenotypic features and geographic distribution of the anoles of the heterodermus group. Figure modified from Moreno-Arias et al. (2023).
After gathering and analyzing different lines of evidence, we examined their correspondence with the evolutionary history of the species. We found a low degree of correspondence between body coloration pattern, morphometrics, and molecular evidence, but a higher degree of correspondence between scalation pattern, dewlap color pattern, molecular evidence, and geography. This correspondence allowed us to support taxonomic novelties and to hypothesize the diversification of the species considering geological and environmental changes associated with the uplift of the Andes in northern South America.
Salto de Tequendama waterfall. Credits: Rafael Moreno.
These taxonomic novelties are summarized in nine lineages that correspond to four previously described species, the resurrection of a species, A. richteri, which had been considered a synonym of A. heterodermus, two new species for science, and two lineages pending description. The two new species are reminiscent of our pre-Columbian history: the name of A. tequendama sp. nov. derives from a sacred place very important in the cosmogony of the Muisca ethnicity (a human group inhabited the Cundiboyacense plateau and where at least three species of “The highest kingdom of Anolis“ can be found) and where a waterfall called Salto de Tequendama is located. According to Muisca mythology, the waterfall was created by a Bochica deity to drain the flood that the Muisca people suffered due to their grievances against the Chibchachum deity. The name A. quimbaya sp. nov. derives from a recognition of the Quimbaya ethnicity, which was famous for its skills in goldsmithing and which, despite its ferocity in combat, became extinct after the Spanish colonization around the year 1600.
In the attempt to reveal diversity in “the highest kingdom of Anolis,” two lineages remain unnamed, to which we currently have limited molecular information and virtually no knowledge of their genetic and phenotypic diversity.
Now, in a warmer world, we can access territories once forbidden by our country’s long armed conflict, but also can access the insatiable hunger for economic development…my anxiety returns, and new questions run through my head: how many more will inhabit the highest kingdom of Anolis? Will we be able to know them before they disappear?
A Spanish version of this post can be read at https://anoliscolombia.wixsite.com/website.
References
Moreno-Arias R, Urbina-Cardona N (2013). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7429.2012.00903.x
Dunn E (1944). https://www.jstor.org/stable/44240655
Lazell JD (1969). https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4295065#page/541/mode/1up
Castañeda MR, de Queiroz K (2013). https://doi.org/10.3099/0027-4100-160.7.345
Poe S et al (2017). https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syx029
Vargas-Ramírez M, Moreno-Arias RA (2014). https://doi.org/10.2994/SAJH-D-13-00013.1
Méndez-Galeano MA et al. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2019.102498
Moreno-Arias RA et al. (2023). https://doi.org/10.3897/vz.73.e94265
- Revealing the Diversity in “The Highest Kingdom of Anolis” - March 24, 2023
Leave a Reply