Author: Jonathan Losos Page 10 of 129

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Green anole in Cape Cod in January

Veronica Worthington writes from Cape Cod: “This September I found an anole  in my unheated, open greenhouse. I snapped a picture of him and he scurried off. Cold weather sets in, below freezing off and on, and I figure the anole  must not have made it but to my surprise a few days ago, January 14th,  I see him again and he’s perfectly fine. I have no idea how he could’ve gotten here, I have not brought any plants in to the greenhouse in a few years and I have no neighbors that could’ve had a pet lizard. Have you heard anything about anoles migrating north?”

First sighting, September 2019

Veronica then added in a subsequent email: “I find it so curious that this little guy ended up in my backyard. And that he has been able to survive all this time. No matter who I tell they say he must have arrived as a hitchhiker on a plant But I have not brought any plants into the greenhouse in a few years and it is always unheated in winter and the doors and sides are open all summer. I don’t know how far they travel naturally catchy but I can’t imagine that this little guy would’ve traveled very far on his own. I don’t have any neighbors close to me  that keep reptiles. The first picture is of him two days ago and the second picture is of him five months ago. Both times that I have seen him he is exactly where I saw him the last time, on a bag of wool. I raise sheep and that’s where the wool came from.”

The green anole, A. carolinensis, is the only native anole in North America. Over the years, the question of whether it is distinct from the Cuban A. porcatus has been debated–morphological differences are pretty minor, other than the Cubans generally being a bit larger.

Now, in an open access paper published last year in Ecology and Evolution, Johanna Wegener and colleagues have driven the final nail in the coffin of the idea that North American carolinensis is a distinct species.

For some time, we have known that carolinensis is nested phylogenetically in the western clade of porcatus, rending porcatus paraphyletic. This phylogeny indicates that North American populations are the result of a colonization event from western Cuba, perhaps 6-12 million years ago (see references in Wegener et al. paper).

From Wegener et al. (2019). Florida populations are usually referred to as “ carolinensis,” Cuban populations as “porcatus“

The novel contribution of the Wegener et al. paper is to look for evidence of hybridization between recently introduced “porcatus” from Cuba and native “carolinensis.” And she found it in spades! The abstract, pasted at the bottom of this post, provides some more details and, of course, you can read the paper itself.

So, Florida populations of the green anole are derived from Cuban populations, and the two readily interbreed when given a chance. Given these facts, there is no justification for treating North American populations as a distinct species. The morphological differences that do exist–quite minor–are the result of geographic variation. Paraphyly plus no reproductive isolation = one species!

But now here’s where it gets interesting. By the rules of zoological nomenclature, the older name has precedence, and so this single species takes the name Anolis carolinensis. That’s right: A. carolinensis is the correct name for Cuban green anoles! I’m sure that won’t go over so well in some quarters.

But it gets more interesting! Cuban Anolis porcatus as currently recognized is not a monophyletic entity, as shown in the attached figure, based on Glor et al. (2005). As the figure shows, eastern populations of porcatus are more closely related to A. allisoni (remember, North American populations are nested in the western clade). Given that the species-level distinctness of allisoni has not been question, most systematists would recognize the two clades of porcatus as different species. Thus, the eastern clade retains the name porcatus.

Bottom line: both A. carolinensis and A. porcatus occur in Cuba!

Abstract

In allopatric species, reproductive isolation evolves through the accumulation of genetic incompatibilities. The degree of divergence required for complete reproductive isolation is highly variable across taxa, which makes the outcome of secondary contact between allopatric species unpredictable. Since before the Pliocene, two species of Anolis lizards, Anolis carolinensis and Anolis porcatus, have been allopatric, yet thisvperiod of independent evolution has not led to substantial species‐specific morphologicalvdifferentiation, and therefore, they might not be reproductively isolated. Invthis study, we determined the genetic consequences of localized, secondary contactvbetween the native green anole, A. carolinensis, and the introduced Cuban green anole, A. porcatus, in South Miami. Using 18 microsatellite markers, we found that the South Miami population formed a genetic cluster distinct from both parental species. Mitochondrial DNA revealed maternal A. porcatus ancestry for 35% of the individuals sampled from this population, indicating a high degree of cytonuclear discordance. Thus, hybridization with A. porcatus, not just population structure within A. carolinensis, may be responsible for the genetic distinctiveness of this population. Using treebased maximum‐likelihood analysis, we found support for a more recent, secondary introduction of A. porcatus to Florida. Evidence that ~33% of the nuclear DNA resulted from a secondary introduction supports the hybrid origin of the green anole population in South Miami. We used multiple lines of evidence and multiple genetic markers to reconstruct otherwise cryptic patterns of species introduction and hybridization. Genetic evidence for a lack of reproductive isolation, as well as morphological similarities between the two species, supports revising the taxonomy of A. carolinensis to include A. porcatus from western Cuba. Future studies should target the current geographic extent of introgression originating from the past injection of genetic material from Cuban green anoles and determine the consequences for the evolutionary trajectory of green anole populations in southern Florida.

Reader Roger Birkhead has asked for help ID’ing this Costa Rican anole on iNaturalist. Can anyone help?

Photo by Karen Cusick from Daffodil’s Photo Blog.

How horrible! Read all about it on Daffodil’s Photo Blog.

Anole Annals readers no doubt recall All-America Park, where so many anole species cavort in South Miami. Turns out the city is “cleaning it up” which spells no good for our favorite lizards. Local A-A Park resident Christopher Cooke writes:

“I live next door to All America Park in South Miami (6820 SW 64th. Avenue), a formerly well known habitat for lizards – I’ve met people from everywhere who have come to study the lizards here.  I’m battling the City which is “sanitizing” the park and I’m looking for any information or references (past or present) in  lizard literature which  highlights the importance of this property as a wildlife environment.  My goal is to stop the “sanitizing” l and replant habitat material so as to restore a conducive environment for lizards and other wildlife.  Any help you can offer will be much appreciated.    Christopher Cooke, neighbor of Neil Losin – for those who know him.”

Please make comments on anything that may be useful. Good luck, Christopher!

And while on the topic, here’s a lovely photo by South Miami mayor and neuroethologist extraordinaire Phil Stoddard, taken near the park.

Anolis cristatellus snoozing on a dragonfruit. Photo by Philip Stoddard

Photo by Dee Jacobsen

Dee Jacobsen from southeastern Louisiana sent in these lovely photos. Here’s what went down:
“I came across your site and wondered if you would be interested in see this photo I took in southeast Louisiana of an anole eating and being stung in the tongue by a bee. I was sitting on my porch and this little guy came running toward me to grab that bee by my foot. Scurried off with it and I grabbed the camera. We have so many anoles here that I take lots of shots of them but this one was most unique.”

Charles Leeper from San Antonio writes:
There appears to be a high population of green anoles on our property. While watering some plants, I sometimes spray a large patch of common ivy. What I’ve noticed is green anoles leaping from the above tree limbs onto the ivy leaves in order to drink the water I’ve just sprayed on them. At first, I heard thuds on the ivy and didn’t know what it was, but then I started watching the tree limbs and saw anoles climbing to the edge and leaping off – probably from a height of ten feet. I only notice them jumping from the trees after I’ve watered. I imagine this is typical behavior after a rain, and my water-spraying replicates such an event? I’m sure this is well-documented behavior, but in the case that it isn’t or is unique to a ground covered in a soft landing pad like ivy, I thought I would share it.
Nonetheless, I enjoy observing them and wanted to let you know there is a solid population here!
Charles kindly agreed to take video of some of the action. Thanks, Charles! And here’s his commentary on th videos (two more below):
I captured some footage of the anoles leaping off the trees. The first two videos (the one at the top of the page and the second one below) document them jumping from a branch of only about 4 to 5 feet, and the third one (the first one below) is from a height of perhaps 9 feet (it’s a bit tough to see, but this one shows a very young anole on the center branch – what a dive it takes!). I have seen many more than this (and from heights of probably 15 to maybe 20 feet), but only managed to record these occurrences.
I have not observed them much while it’s raining (a rarity down here in the summer!), but I would imagine they don’t partake in this jumping during or following a rain because either they don’t have to drink from the ivy as the raindrops hit the trees, or they’re already on the ground and not perched/basking in the trees during a storm.
The following is just conjecture, but possibly they smell, hear, or see the water hitting the ivy, and it’s not sprinkling the trees, so they’re drawn down for a drink. As for why they leap off as opposed to crawling down the tree, which does sometimes happen, perhaps they’ve learned the ivy is a soft landing pad and it’s just less energy-intensive to jump, or they’re avoiding bigger green anoles that may be near the base or brown anoles. Although, I’m not sure there are many brown anoles here as I don’t think I have seen them, but I certainly could be wrong.

And here’s a lizard drinking post-spraying:

Photo from Daffodil’s Photo Blog.

Read all about it in the latest post from Daffodil’s Photo Blog.