Researchers have thought of putting anoles in experimental wind tunnels. Perhaps this is the next best evidence? Or maybe this was a setup? Either way, we can see the classic anole response to falling.
h/t Mike Whitlock
Author: Jonathan Losos Page 2 of 130
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.
from the pages of Forbes:
An Anole (Anolis) lizard from Colombia, with an orange dewlap. Photo: CAMILO ANDRÉS ESTUPIÑAN
How Do You Tell Colombia’s Bright, Zany Anole Lizards Apart?
A group of passionate lizard scientists have published a guide to the dozens of species of Anolis: small, brightly-coloured tree lizards related to iguanas. Colombia holds more than 75 species of Anolis which are and males have large throat fans called dewlaps, to attract females.
Camilo Andrés Estupiñan, a biologist at Icesi University in Colombia and a researcher at the Interandinos Foundation, is currently leading a project to create an illustrated guide of Anolis in Colombia. “Colombia has the greatest diversity of Anolis species in the world, and this book seeks to capture and share that richness,” he says, adding that this is a collaborative effort that came out of the Interandinos Foundation.
“The information available on these species is quite scattered, which represents a great challenge for us, but we have received incredible support from the scientific community, who have contributed significantly,” he says, “Maria, the illustrator of this book, has done an exceptional job, exceeding our expectations with illustrations that accurately capture the unique characteristics of each species.”
Estupiñan explains that this project is crucial not only for biodiversity conservation, but also for fostering knowledge and appreciation of our rich biodiversity, empowering local communities.
“We hope that this book will not be the last of its kind, but will open the doors for future scientific dissemination projects on reptiles in Colombia, contributing to a deeper knowledge and greater conservation of these species,” he says.
Estupiñan explains that in Colombia, local communities such as farmers and indigenous people are “true guardians of the forests” and have direct and constant contact with natural resources.
“They see biodiversity not only as a resource to be conserved, but as part of their identity and can provide valuable data that enriches science,” he says, “In this context, projects such as the Anolis illustrated guide are fundamental, as they not only promote the knowledge and conservation of biodiversity, but also empower these communities.”
Excerpt from the guide to Colombian anoles. FUNDACIÓN INTERANDINOS
Passion For Colombia’s Lizards
Estupiñan was born and raised in Cali, Colombia and says as a child he has always had a deep passion for reptiles. “This passion led me to study biology at Icesi University, where I was fortunate to meet Jhan Carlos Salazar, who was finishing his thesis on the physiology of Anolis lizards,” he says, “He took me to do field work and introduced me to these fascinating lizards, which further ignited my passion for them.”
Estupiñan would go to to start a master’s degree in engineering and teaching undergraduate conservation biology.
“With a clear vision of contributing significantly to research, environmental education and scientific dissemination in Colombia, I founded together with some colleagues and friends the Interandinos Foundation,” he says, “Since its creation, the foundation has allowed me to channel my passion for nature and science into concrete actions that have a real impact on our community and beyond.”
Estupiñan explains that scientists from the Global South bring a deep understanding of their own ecological, social and economic contexts, which is essential for developing sustainable and effective solutions to problems that affect both locally and globally.
“This proximity not only allows for greater precision in identifying problems, but also facilitates the implementation of solutions that are culturally and environmentally appropriate,” he says, “Ultimately, integrating these voices and perspectives into global science is not only right, but also essential to effectively address the environmental, social and developmental challenges we face today.”
Camilo Estupiñan and an anole lizard. Photo: Jhan Carlos Salazar
More Passion for Anoles
Biologist Jhan Salazar, who is also a collaborator on the illustrated guide, graduated from the Biology Program in 2018 from Icesi University, in Cali, in the south of Colombia and is now pursuing his PhD in Evolution, Ecology and Population Biology at the Washington University in St. Louis.
“My research is focused on Anolis lizards now, but I want to study other lizard genres, snakes, and frogs in the future,” he says, adding that his passion for studying reptiles started back when he was growing up in the country-side of Cauca, Colombia.
“We grew up surrounded by nature and when I was 11, I went out with my family we went on a trip and that really influenced me,” he says, “Its a rural zone and a forested zone.”
In 2019, he was also announced as the winner of the Young Afro-Colombian 2019.
Anolis cybotes from Florida. Photo by Janson Jones. https://floridensis.com/tag/anolis-cybotes/
Subrata Das writes:
The area of my interest is the commercialization of invasive species for leather, meat, hair, fur, bristles and by-products.
Of late I am researching invasive anoles, agamas and basilisks and the various ways they have been or are being commercialized in trade and commerce.
I will be deeply grateful for all information you can share with me on the commercial exploitation of anoles, agamas and basilisks in both their native and invasive ranges.
Biologist Damion Whyte reports from Jamaica: On April 11, 2024, at 10:50 am, Mrs. Lisa Bowman Lee was at her garage in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica. She saw a Greater Antillean Grackle (Quiscalus niger) and a Jamaican Twig Anole (Anolis valencienni). She had never seen that lizard before, and she had seen a bird trying to eat it. She contacted Damion Whyte, who has done much work with wildlife in Jamaica. He advised her to put the lizard in a nearby tree. She was amazed by its colourful dewlap. This is the first time we have seen an Anolis valencienni fight for its life like that.
MCZ 36138, the holotype of Anolis roosevelti. Laszlo Meszoly, del. From Mayer and Gamble 2019.
We’ve had a number of posts in the past about the enigmatic A. roosevelti, last seen alive in more than 90 years ago. Here’s an interesting summary of the species and how its specter haunts current land use on Culebra and elsewhere in the species’ geographic range.
From the pages of Binghamton University’s 
Anolis aquaticus, a semi-aquatic lizard species in Costa Rica
In the fascinating world of semi-aquatic lizards, the anoles have emerged as the scuba-diving champions, capable of staying submerged for over 16 minutes. However, for these cold-blooded creatures, spending time in cool running streams can come with physiological trade-offs, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.
A recent study by doctoral candidate Alexandra M. Martin, Christopher K. Boccia of Queens University in Canada, and Assistant Research Professor Lindsey Swierk explored the delicate balance between behavioral needs and physiological costs. “Diving behavior in semi-aquatic Anolis lizards results in heat loss with sex-specific cooling tolerance” recently appeared in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
“This may not sound like very much, but biologically, 20 seconds could easily be the difference between life and death,” Martin pointed out, referring to the study’s finding that male anoles stayed underwater for 20 fewer seconds than females on average.
Diving underwater allows anoles to evade predators, but it comes at the cost of up to a 6°C drop in body temperature. As ectotherms, reptiles rely on their external environment to maintain body heat, and remaining in cool water can potentially affect critical functions like muscle performance, essential for escaping predation.
“Semi-aquatic anoles seem to have evolved a sex-specific tradeoff between finding safety underwater and retaining body heat on land. This represents what behavioral ecologists call an ‘optimization problem,’ where animals have to balance the costs and benefits of performing particular behaviors,” Swierk explained.
The researchers found that females, who invest more energy in offspring production, trade the physiological cost of cool water for extra safety by diving longer. Males, on the other hand, shorten their dives to conserve body heat and physiological capacity, minimizing the “time out” period as their muscles recover from the cool water, which may be advantageous for courtship, mating, and territorial defense.
Like little scuba divers, anoles maintain a “dry suit” of air underwater, which may help them retain some heat. The researchers plan to further explore the function and mechanisms of this trait and others in future research.
“The ways that animals can adapt to environmental pressures are astounding and have continued to inspire humans to push the boundaries of bio-inspired design,” Swierk said. “We are curious and excited to explore these ideas in the future.”
Rachana applying fluorescent powder to a wild brown anole
This post is an update of one from 2020. Below is the old post based on a presentation by Rachana Bhave at the 2020 SICB meetings. Rachana has now done the genetic parentage studies and published the cool paper in Behavioral Ecology. Here’s the abstract of the paper:
In promiscuous species, fitness estimates obtained from genetic parentage may often reflect both pre- and post-copulatory components of sexual selection. Directly observing copulations can help isolate the role of pre-copulatory selection, but such behavioral data are difficult to obtain in the wild and may also overlook post-copulatory factors that alter the relationship between mating success and reproductive success. To overcome these limitations, we combined genetic parentage analysis with behavioral estimates of sizespecific mating in a wild population of brown anole lizards (Anolis sagrei). Males of this species are twice as large as females and multiple mating among females is common, suggesting the scope for both pre- and post-copulatory processes to shape sexual selection on male body size. Our genetic estimates of reproductive success revealed strong positive directional selection for male size, which was also strongly associated with the number of mates inferred from parentage. In contrast, a male’s size was not associated with the fecundity of his mates or his competitive fertilization success. By simultaneously tracking copulations in the wild via the transfer of colored powder to females by males from different size quartiles, we independently confirmed that large males were more likely to mate than small males. We conclude that body size is primarily under pre-copulatory sexual selection in brown anoles, and that postcopulatory processes do not substantially alter the strength of this selection. Our study also illustrates the utility of combining both behavioral and genetic methods to estimate mating success to disentangle pre- and post-copulatory processes in promiscuous species.
And here’s the post from 2020:
If you’ve ever tried to note how often lizards mate, you’ve likely found yourself staring at an individual for hours at a time, sometimes with little to no movement at all, let alone observing copulations! Further, if you’re unable to catch the animal after your behavioral observations, you may not be able to draw any conclusions about traits that influence how successful an individual is at mating with another.
Rachana Bhave, a fourth year PhD candidate in Bob Cox’s lab at University of Virginia, studies pre- and post-copulatory sexual selection in brown anoles (Anolis sagrei). One of her interests includes estimating mating rates in the wild and, in particular, testing if traits such as body size directly influence these rates. Given the power required to detect selection statistically, using simple behavioral observations can be inefficient. Further, because selection is a measure of covariance between phenotype and fitness, one needs phenotypic values for each individual within her analyses. Thankfully, Rachana was able to come up with a robust technique to estimate mating rates using an island population of brown anoles in Florida: fluorescent powders!
To understand how size affects mating rate in the brown anole, Rachana and colleagues caught 153 adult male lizards in May and 128 adult male lizards in July, weighed them, and then assigned them to one of four fluorescent powder treatments. Each mass quartile was painted with a unique color of fluorescent powder on their cloaca and released to their initial capture location. After two days, all females on the island were captured and their cloaca were examined under UV light to look for the presence and color of fluorescent powder, which would suggest that she mated with a painted male. Using this technique, Rachana found that within two days, 24% of the captured females had mated in May and 48% had mated in July. These rates were shockingly high for such a short time frame!
A) Powdering an adult male brown anole; B) copulating brown anoles; C) powder visible on the cloaca of a female brown anole, evidence of copulation
Images from Rachana’s poster
Further, she found that both larger males and larger females mated significantly more than smaller males and females across the two sampling periods. Interestingly, 2% of females had multiple colors on their cloacas, which suggests they mated multiple times with males from different size classes in the two-day span. Because multiple matings within the same size class would be undetectable, this is likely an underestimation of multiple matings in the wild.
Next, Rachana plans to quantify male reproductive success using genetic parentage analysis to begin to tease apart how pre- and post-copulatory selection influences selection. We are all looking forward to her results next year! Meanwhile, you can take a look at her poster to find out more on her website.
reprinted with permission
How Do You Create a Book about All the Reptiles of a Mega-diverse Country?
Reptiles of Ecuador | Story of the book
By Alejandro Arteaga. August 2023.
Everyone grasps the fundamental concept of a field guide: a book designed to aid in the identification of species in the wild while offering pertinent information about them. Unlike encyclopedias, field guides strive to provide information about EVERY species within a specific animal or plant group in a given geographical area. Field guides can be comprehensive when the number of species covered is limited. For instance, a field guide centered on the crocodiles of the Americas would include only ten species.
However, how do you create a comprehensive field guide about a species-rich animal group in a mega-diverse country?
To answer this question, I will tell you the story of the Reptiles of Ecuador book, a meticulously created field guide that has gained attention due to its expansive scope, novel photographic style, open-access nature, and funding strategy.
The idea for a Reptiles of Ecuador book emerged in 2010 from a casual conversation with a wildlife photographer friend. I posed a question:
Why are there field guides for birds and mammals of Ecuador, but none dedicated to reptiles?
His response was candid: “I’m not sure… you should consider writing one.”
Andrea Ferrari, editor in chief of Anima Mundi, enjoys reading the Amphibians and Reptiles of Mindo book. Photo by Lucas Bustamante.
His suggestion caught me off guard. I had never contemplated writing a book and, even though I found the concept intriguing, at 18 years old and just commencing my studies in biology, I did not feel qualified for such a task.
Throughout my childhood, I had drawn inspiration from field guides spanning diverse animal groups, ranging from insects to birds, and more recently, amphibians and reptiles. Consequently, I had a general idea of how a field guide about herpetofauna should look like.
But I had no idea how write one.
How could I possibly compile a book encompassing ALL reptile species within a country as biodiverse as Ecuador? The nation boasts a staggering 500 reptile species!
There are 500 species of reptiles in Ecuador, including the Emerald Tree-Boa (Corallus batesii), a snake that lives in the canopy of the Amazon rainforest and is seen no more than once every few years. Photo by Jose Vieira.
We’ve reported on this a number of times previously. Here are two more examples from Costa Rica.