Author: Anthony J Geneva Page 4 of 6

I am an Assistant Professor at Rutgers University-Camden. I use a variety of evolutionary genetic approaches to ask questions about gene flow, adaptation and speciation.

George Gorman in Dominica

In the 1960s and 70’s evolutionary cytogenetics experienced a remarkable burst of interest and scholarship. Thanks largely to the efforts of George Gorman (at right) and others working at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, anoles played a central role in this research (some historical detail has previously been posted on AA). Among their findings was the occurrence of heteromorphic sex chromosomes, sex chromosomes that are visibly distinguishable from each other under a microscope, in several Anolis species but not others. Furthermore, Gorman and colleagues discovered that those Anolis species with heteromorphic sex chromosomes all had male heterogamety, with some having an XX/XY system while others had an XXXX/XXY system. Chromosomes from nearly 100 Anolis species were examined during this period and about 1/3 of those species had heteromorphic sex chromosomes. Interest in chromosome evolution waned in the 1980’s as DNA sequence data became increasing accessible, but there has been a recent resurgence thanks, in part, to sex chromosomes.

In Search Of A Collective Noun For Anoles

By Anthony J Geneva

On April 14, 2013

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor

Is this an embarrassment of anoles? Image from petparadise.info.

For natural history students, professionals and enthusiasts some of the most entertaining, albeit fairly useless, facts are the collective nouns used to describe a group of organisms. From taxon to taxon, collective nouns are literary (a murder of crows), descriptive (a prickle of porcupines or a sneak of weasels), mundane (a shoal of sticklebacks), and even absurd (an aurora of polar bears).

When I first read the headline of Jonathan’s latest dispatch to the New York Times Scientist at Work blog, An Embarrassment of Anoles, I briefly thought that anoles had their very own collective noun. But alas, I was wrong and a group of anoles isn’t (yet) referred to as an embarrassment.

In a quick flurry of googling I found words for groups of various amphibians and reptiles: crocodiles (bask), cobras (quiver), iguanas (mess), frogs (knot), toads (knot), salamanders (congress) and lizards (lounge), to name a few. But nothing for anoles!

Does anyone know of a collective noun for anoles or, failing that, have a suggestion?

Help Us With Extra Eggs

By Anthony J Geneva

On April 8, 2013

In New Research

A portion of our current collection. Each cup contains a single incubating egg.

Our group has posted frequently about our anole breeding work. Now many years of fine-tuning our methods has resulted in a very efficient and high yield colony, but has generated an unforeseen, but welcome problem… too many eggs. We currently have 260 eggs incubating and are getting 50-70 new eggs laid a week (in addition to the ~2700 eggs and ~1500 hatchlings that this experiment has already produced). All of these eggs are the results of a cross involving members of the A. distichus species complex from Hispaniola. This quantity of eggs is more than we need for our current experiments and more than we can house, so we are wondering if folks in the AA community can help us figure out how to put them to good use. These eggs are from a research colony and can only be used for research purposes at an accredited research institution; we cannot provide eggs or hatchlings to be kept as pets*.

Do you have a need for, or ideas for the use of, a large number of eggs, embryos or recent hatchlings? We are looking for suggestions that might help us use these eggs to learn something about anole biology that we may not have thought of, or don’t have the expertise to do. For example, if there is anybody out there who wants to create a developmental series for A. distichus, we can provide you with the required samples. Perhaps someone could make use of a large sample of egg yolk or other egg components for their work on anole reproduction? We are also hoping for some creative suggestions; see, for example, a recent study on explosive hatching in response to predator presence.

Drop us a line in the comments or contact me directly if you are interested or have ideas.

* To be clear, we are not against keeping anoles as pets but our university committee on animal resources stipulates that animals from our colony must be used for addressing specific projects or questions. Indeed, any potential uses would need to be approved by the approproate institutional review committee(s).

Ever Seen A Transparent Anole Egg?

By Anthony J Geneva

On March 26, 2013

In Anole Photographs

As we have posted previously, the Glor lab has been breeding anoles to assess the degree of reproductive isolation between A. distichus-clade lineages. Most eggs we collect fall into two easily separated categories: white, calcified, viable eggs; and yellow, uncalcified, inviable eggs. On occasion we get a third type: white, seemingly viable, yet uncalcified eggs. These represent only about 1% of the eggs in our current experiment. We always incubate these, in the hopes that they will develop, but typically they mold early in incubation and, upon dissection, show no signs of fertilization or development. The egg above is our first exception which, when incubated for about 3 weeks, was clearly developing (it has, sadly, since died).

So, AA community, has anyone else seen anything like this? I would very much like to hear your thoughts, interpretations and comments.

Six-Toed Anole

By Anthony J Geneva

On December 18, 2012

In New Research

Ventral and dorsal view of polydactyl anole, click to enlarge.

As Rich Glor mentioned recently, we are in the second year of an experimental hybrid cross between two bark anole species. Although we are still early in this year’s experiment, we have had about 50 eggs hatch and, surprisingly, two have had malformed forelimb digits. The first was missing two toes on one of its forelimbs and died a few days after hatching. The second (pictured above) hatched with six toes, but has been otherwise healthy. Each of these toes has an intact claw, and at least one has lamellae. The fourth digit (from closest to the body counting outwards) seems to lack the (expected) scansor and is permanently bent upwards.

Mats Olsson and colleagues (2004) found malformations in the limbs and jaws and kinked backbones in crosses between populations of Lacerta agilis. Of the over 800 hatchlings in last year’s F1 experiment, we found a few animals with malformed spines, but not a single animal with digit or jaw issues. It’s particularly interesting (to me at least) that these issues have manifested in the backcross generation, an issue I hope to investigate further as more animals hatch.

Polydactyly has been reported in captive-bred crested geckos (Correlophus ciliatus), but I couldn’t find anything about anoles. Has anyone else seen something similar in anoles? If so, please let us know in the comments.

Happy Reptile Awareness Day

By Anthony J Geneva

On October 21, 2012

In All Posts

Turns out today is Reptile Awareness Day. The reptile channel has some suggestions of things to do to in honor of the day and Audubon has put their Reptile and Amphibian Field Guide iOS app on sale for $0.99. So is anybody doing anything special to celebrate?

Anole On PBS

By Anthony J Geneva

On August 21, 2012

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor, Anoles and Anolologists in the News

BBC host Michael Mosley with a Jamaican anole he captured

Our local PBS station has been airing episodes of the entertaining 2010 BBC series The Story of Science: Power, Proof, and Passion, hosted by medical journalist and doctor Micheal Mosley. The program recounts the history of major advances in science by focusing on the individuals responsible for them.

Episode Three, “How did we get here?”, tracks Evolutionary theory, from the development of geology, through Cuvier’s advances in comparative morphology and on to the field work that kickstarted Darwin and Wallace’s thought processes. In this episode Mosley follows in the footsteps of early collector Hans Sloane. Sloane, as you will recall from a previous post, assembled an expansive collection of Jamaican flora and fauna including anoles.

There is a brief segment where Mosley and his botanist guide construct small nooses and capture an anole, pictured above. I don’t know the Jamaican fauna well, but my guess is that he’s got A. lineatopus. Unfortunately I can’t find any video clips and the only picture available (above) is pretty grainy. If you’ve seen the episode or if you can make out the species from the picture above, let me know if I’m close in the comments.

UPDATE: The anole segment is online! Thanks to Jonathan for sleuthing this out.

Anoles (And Other Lizards) Featured In Temple Magazine

By Anthony J Geneva

On August 1, 2012

In Anoles and Anolologists in the News

My brother just sent me the Spring 2012 issue of the Temple University magazine, a quarterly publication the university sends to alumni and donors. The cover story features the biomechanics research of Dr. Tonia Hsieh and describes the various animal taxa her lab uses to ask questions about animal locomotion in challenging environments. This work, also featured in a January article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, has a wide variety of potential applications ranging from the development of nimble robots to suggestions for how to prevent slips and falls among the elderly.

The article and some accompanying online material are a quick, interesting read and contain some great images and videos. Although other taxa get all the glamor shots, the article does describe how a lab colony of Anolis carolinensis is used study how animals recover and maintain their balance when navigating slippery surfaces.

Help With Yellow Eggs

By Anthony J Geneva

On June 20, 2012

In Ask the Experts

A 'slug' next to a healthy, freshly laid egg. The scale bars in millimeters.

In December, Rich posted on infertile eggs occasionally produced by anoles, also known as slugs. These eggs are small, yellow, and uncalcified. We have found that females typically lay slugs in different locations than fertile eggs. In our breeding colony, nearly every viable egg is deposited in egg laying substrate (moistened vermiculite in a plastic yogurt container), whereas slugs are found on nearly any surface but these cups, as described in a previous comment by William Baugher.

As our hybridization experiment in distichoids proceeds, it has become clear that these inviable eggs may be an important measure of the success of hybrid matings. There are some really great studies on viable anole eggs in the reproductive biology literature (1, 2, and 3, to name a few), but I have had no luck in finding papers that discuss, or even mention the production of, these inviable eggs. Since the last post on this subject AA readership has gone up and I am hoping that someone out there has some additional information on the phenomenon.

Anolis eightbiticus

By Anthony J Geneva

On May 10, 2012

In Anole Art, Literature, and Humor

All things 8-bit are making a comeback. The worlds of art, technology, fashion and music all have (re)embraced the format, and I, for one, don’t want anoles to be left behind. Here’s my 8-bit take on a member of the disticus clade (bonus points on guessing which one). Drawn in Adobe Illustrator following these instructions, you can also roll your own with a free webapp here.