Author: Jonathan Losos Page 51 of 130

Anolis ventrimaculatus. Photo by Jonathan Losos.

We (Rosario Castaneda, Anthony Herrel, Luke Mahler and I) have just completed the first leg of our 2.5 week Colombian anole sojourn. First up: La Cumbre in the hills north of Cali. At  2000 meters, it was chilly! Going out our first night, we found plenty of long-legged Anolis ventrimaculatus. Imagine our surprise the next day when they were hard to find when active! This was reminiscent to us of A. gemmosus in Mindo, which also is very abundant at night–we’re talking Caribbean anole night abundance–but not easy to find while active.

The ones we did find were generally low to the ground, often on tree trunks, sometimes on vegetation. They refused to move when we filmed them, but their stomach contents indicated that they had been foraging, even at temperatures in the upper teens. These are tough, wily buggers!

We found two other species in smaller numbers, but only at night. The most exciting was A. calimae, which was not known from the locality at which we were working. We found a male and a female. They look moderately like twig anoles–elongate, slender body habitus–but there limbs are on the long side. We’ll see what the morphometrics say. However, when we released them, they behaved exactly like twig anoles, squirreling to the far side of a branch, creeping forward, carefully placing one foot, then the next, freezing. Unfortunately, despite intensive efforts, none were located during the day, perhaps not surprising, as many twig anoles are very cryptic and hard to find, particularly given that they live in dense vegetation.

Female Anolis calimae. Photo by Jonathan Losos.

Lastly, we found a number of A. mariarum in dense fields of high, stout grass. The photo below shows one such area. These lizards have to be living in the grass; they’re too far from anything else (the occasional tree notwithstanding. Yet search as we might, we couldn’t find them during the day. Our guess is that they are active in the spaces on the ground beneath the grass. In fact, when we let the lizards go, they seemed quiet happy to scamper about, and even display at each other, under the grass canopy.

Anolis mariarum’s field of dreams, where several were found sleeping, but none could be found during the day.

An exciting, if chilly start, but we’ll soon be thinking wistfully of cool days and evenings as we head to our hot and steamy next location.

From Rachel on Twitter.

Wouldn’t this be great? Maybe there’s one out there, still waiting to be discovered.

httpv://vimeo.com/93621704

We’ve discussed the crisis concerning Jamaica’s Goat Islands previously. This film is the work of Robin Moore. Read more about the film and the efforts to preserve Jamaica’s iguanas on National Geographic‘s Newswatch. More relevant videos can be viewed at the Save Goat Islands website.

Anole jeans! Now marked down to $25. Get ’em while they last!

Extensive googling reveals that the jeans are made by Nice Work Textile Jeans, Inc.

Long time AA readers will know that anoles frequently pop up in haute couture, perhaps most recently when Tommy Bahama created an anole-colored T-shirt.

Distribution records for Anolis cristatellus in Costa Rica reported in 2011 AA post.

Four years ago, we reported on the distribution of the Puerto Rican crested anole all along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. We also found the species inland, as far west as Turrialba and Siquerres, but not Guapiles (see map to right). A year later, we returned for a quick follow-up as part of a herpetology course spring break trip to Costa Rica. The weather wasn’t great and we failed to find cresteds in any place not previously reported; however, observations of brown basilisks, another sun-loving species, suggested that the weather was suitable enough, and that perhaps the absence of the anoles was real.

Two years later, this past March, another herpetology class trip ensued, and so another expedition was launched to Guapiles and environs. The team included AA correspondent Katie Boronow, an award-winning senior with expertise on A. cristatellus, and a sophomore in training for Miami field work this summer (more on them in posts to come).

And the results???

Read More

Great photos on Adventures Down South

Where do anoles poop? Will they chase laser points? Find out on Casey Gilman’s new blog on her Florida field research, Adventures Down South.  Meanwhile, Chipojolab keeps the world abreast of goings-on in the Leal Lab. Most recently–Leal back in the Bahamas and multiple lab members cavorting in Puerto Rico! And Ambika Kamath’s afoot with her field crew in Gainesville, dodging frisbees and fire ants in quest of the wily festive anole. Finally, at Lizard and Friends, Michele Johnson talks about Puerto Rican anoles that are biting off more than they can chew. Or are they?

Do you have a blog on your research? If so, let us know!

Field laboratory in Puerto Rico. Read all about it in Chipojolab.

Variation in the back patterns of Anolis sagrei in the Bahamas. From Calsbeek and Cox (2010).

The confusing conundrum of the polymorphic females continues. We’ve written about this phenomenon in previous posts [e.g., 1,2]. Within and between populations, female back patterns vary, including lines, stripes, diamonds, blotches, and nothing at all. What is the significance of this variation? In some cases, but not others, females with different patterns use different microhabitats–higher, wider, etc.

The latest contribution features work on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera, where three patterns co-occur. Writing in Herpetologica, Les et al. add a new twist–back pattern variants differ in hindlimb length. But they don’t differ in sprint speed (which is weakly correlated to body size and relative limb length) or to perch diamter. But they do differ in perch height. Another brick in the wall of female pattern polymorphism, but it doesn’t make the picture any clearer.

Here’s the abstract:

The Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei) is a polymorphic species, with females often exhibiting one of three distinct pattern morphs. Efforts to correlate female-limited pattern polymorphism in anoles to ecological or physiological factors have largely been unsuccessful, with such correlations being either inconsistent among species or among populations of a single species. To test the hypothesis that morph types would differ in their response to putative predators, we observed escape behavior in 84 female A. sagrei from Cape Eleuthera (Eleuthera, Bahamas) and tested 103 females for sprint speed. We found differences between morph types in hindlimb span and perch height. Differences in sprint speed were not significant, nor did morphs differ in escape responses. We suggest further studies to determine whether differences between morphs in hindlimb span are genetic or plastic, and, if plastic, what factor might be responsible. We conclude that perching at different heights could be selectively advantageous for different morph types, and that differences among individuals in sprint speed are largely consequences of hindlimb length. Because morphs in this population did not differ in escape responses, we suggest that different dorsal patterns are not linked to specific behaviors that could reduce detection by a potential predator.

About time! Read all about it in the St. Augustine Record.

The Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles, produced by the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, are “Loose-leaf accounts of taxa (measuring 8.5 x 11 inches) prepared by specialists, including synonymy, definition, description, distribution map, and comprehensive list of literature for each taxon. Covers amphibians and Reptiles of the entire Western Hemisphere. Individual accounts are not sold separately, except where indicated.”

CAAR entries are now freely available online; there are 32 anole species accounts. The latest is by Les and Powell and is a very nice CAAR entry for the lovely Anolis smaragdinus.