La Jornada en Linea just published an article on a new Mexican amber anole with information provided by paleontologist Francisco Riquelme. As discussed previously in AA‘s pages, this is only the second anole in amber from anywhere other than the Dominican Republic, the first, Anolis electrum, having been described by Skip Lazell in 1965. That specimen is very incomplete such that little can be said about its taxonomy or lifestyle. It will be interesting to learn more about this one.
Author: Jonathan Losos Page 69 of 129
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.
Anolis jubar. Photo by Miguel Landestoy
Two months ago, Masakado Kawata summarized the ongoing collaborative research program between Tohoku University in Japan, Habana University and the National Museum and Natural History of Cuba. The first fruit of this research has now been published in this month’s issue of Ecosphere (lead author Antonio Cádiz recently received his Ph.D. from Tohoku).
The paper is the result of an impressive field research program in which 12 species of Cuban trunk-ground anoles were studied at 34 sites throughout the breadth of Cuba. The abstract pasted below provides the nitty-gritties (and, of course, read the paper yourself), but here are some of the interesting take-home messages:
1. Three species–A. allogus, A. homolechis, and A. sagrei–are widespread throughout Cuba, but the remainder have localized distributions.
2. Co-occurring species are a phylogenetically random subset of the clade, a result that obtains because of the combination of localized and widespread species that co-occur (four can occur in sympatry and five in an area).
3. Sympatric species are ecologically overdispersed, with species occupying different thermal microhabitats co-occurring.
4. Both A. allogus and A. jubar are paraphyletic with deeply divergent, geographically disjunct clades. The authors treat the clades as different species, and perhaps it is time for someone to formally describe them as such.
5. Anolis delafuentei–known, if I’m not mistaken, from a single individual–defied efforts to recollect it. Is this a real species? Is it extant?
Overall, this is an excellent study that could serve as model for the study of other species-rich ecomorph clades, both on Cuba (e.g., alutaceus group) and elsewhere.
Abstract:
This year’s herp meetings will be held next week (July 10-15) in Albuquerque. Appropriately enough given the venue, it’s the Steve Poe Lab Show, with eight presentations emanating therefrom. Nonetheless, there are a number of other anole talks as well. Below is the list of the talks and below the fold, and attached as a pdf, are the abstracts.
AA is looking for reporters to provide eyewitness accounts of these talks. Many of the abstracts are cagey about what their actual findings are, no doubt out of paranoia and, more likely, an early abstract submission deadline combined with talks that are probably still being finalized. Those attending these talks, please let us know–any level of detail would be welcome!
Titles:
Julian Davis, Steven Poe
0702 Herp. Systematics & Evolution, San Miguel, Saturday 13 July 2013
A Phylogenetic Analysis of the Anolis pentaprion species group
Anthony Geneva, Richard Glor
0746 SSAR SEIBERT AWARD SYSTEMATICS & EVOLUTION, San Miguel, Friday 12 July 2013
Reproductive Isolation in Anolis lizards
Levi Gray, Robbie Burger
0512 SSAR SEIBERT AWARD PHYSIOLOGY & MORPHOLOGY, Galisteo/Aztec, Friday 12 July 2013
Do allometries reveal evolutionary constraints in Anolis lizards?
Aja King, Steven Poe
0610 SSAR EVOLUTION, SYSTEMATICS, AND GENETICS BEST STUDENT POSTER AWARD, Poster Session I, NW Exhibit Hall, Friday 12 July 201
Colonization and Differentiation in the Honduran Bay Islands Populations of Anolis allisoni
Ian Latella, Steve Poe
0662 SSAR ECOLOGY, NATURAL HISTORY, AND DISTRIBUTION BEST STUDENT POSTER AWARD, Poster Session I, NW Exhibit Hall, Friday 12 July 2013
Habitat Use in Naturalized Anolis Lizard Communities
Deidre Linden, Steven Poe
0692 SSAR EVOLUTION, SYSTEMATICS, AND GENETICS BEST STUDENT POSTER AWARD, Poster Session I, NW Exhibit Hall, Friday 12 July 2013
Estimation of phylogeny of the Anolis cupreus (Squamata: Dactyloidae) species group
Kirsten Nicholson, John Phillips, Sarah Burton
0288 Poster Session III, NW Exhibit Hall, Sunday 14 July 2013
Biogeography of Norops capito: Second Example of a Contradictory Pattern
Steven Poe
0460 Poster Session III, NW Exhibit Hall, Sunday 14 July 2013
Identification Key for Anolis Lizards
Steven Poe
0455 Herp Systematics & Evolution, San Miguel, Saturday 13 July 2013
Phylogeny of Anolis
Bradley Truett, Steven Poe
0471 Poster Session II, NW Exhibit Hall, Saturday 13 July 2013
Revisiting the Aquatic Anole Ecomorph
Kristin Winchell
0664 SSAR ECOLOGY, NATURAL HISTORY, AND DISTRIBUTION BEST STUDENT POSTER AWARD, Poster Session I, NW Exhibit Hall, Friday 12 July 2013
Phenotypic shifts in urban populations of the tropical lizard, Anolis cristatellus
Abstracts below the fold
Anolis equestris displaying. Photo by Ultra Violet.
We at AA obviously have a soft spot for those monstrously grotesque, yet winningly appealing giants of the anole world. Here’s a lovely picture that just passed through the tweet-o-sphere. Good pictures of knight anoles dewlapping are few and far between, and Ultra Violet kindly allowed us to reproduce it here.
Photo by Frank Burbrink
Ophidiologist extraordinaire Frank Burbrink posted a photo of this Costa Rican anole on Facebook, challenging several of us to identify it. The consensus is that it’s A. lionotus or perhaps A. poecilopus. Any thoughts? More importantly, Frank of snake phylogenetics fame (including a paper on Caribbean serpents), had this to say:
“I really like these streamside anoles. Ecologically and morphologically they seem so un-Anolis like. There were tons of these guys along the wet rocks also inhabited by plethodontids nearby. I would love to see an Anole Annals post about these the very wet streamside anoles.”
So, here one is! He goes on:
“First off…they seemed unusually wet and cold. Second they were everywhere. Third they seemed to be able to hold onto the face of very slippery large rocks (boulders)…some right next to the waterfalls. I am not sure how they actually got there…unless they swam and crawled up the face of the rock. That seems like it wouldn’t take much effort to observe how they do it. Anyhow, everything about them was very non-anole like—other than the huge dewlap, body and head shape.”
Photo by Frank Burbrink
“They seem to exist in a niche not filled by other lizards …certainly not even the semi-aquatic gymnothalmids. It makes you wonder from what ancestral ecomorph they invaded this particular niche…which again seems so un-Anolis” like.
Editor’s note: we’ll be hearing soon about the talks in the upcoming herp meetings, one of which is on aquatic anoles. More on that soon.
A twofer. Photo by Frank Burbrink
Quite a line-up! This August in San Juan. Schedule below, and details on their website, as are the abstracts:
DAY I: August 1, 2013
8:30 Ray Huey Opening remarks
9:00 Ariel Lugo Climate change or land cover change? Which is driving some lizards to the lowlands?
9:30 Jennifer Sunday Global patterns of thermal tolerance and range limits in ectotherms
10:00 Barry Sinervo On the risk of extinction of tropical ectotherms: Are they buffered against climate?
10:30 Coffee Break
11:00 Elvira Cuevas Update of climate change in the Caribbean, and projections on soil nutrient cycling and interactions
11:30 Omar Gutierrez Significant diurnal and seasonal variation in soil CO2 efflux is positively related to temperature in a moist subtropical forest in Puerto Rico
12:00 Lauren Buckley Thermal specialization of ecotherms on tropical mountains
12:30 Michael Kearney The thermodynamic niches of tropical ectotherms
1:00 Lunch Break
2:30 Mike Kaspari Life in the boundary zone–the thermal ecology of small cursorial insects
3:00 Patricia Burrowes Climate change efects on Caribbean seasonality and its implications on an ectotherm host-pathogen dynamics
3:30 Carlos Navas Vulnerability of anuran amphibians to climate change: inferring the impact of water availability and temperature
4:00 Ana C. Carnaval Integrating data sets to validate models of biological response to former climate change in the Brazilian Atlantic forest
4:30 Coffee Break
5:00 Mridul Thomas The effects of ocean warming on marine phytoplankton diversity
5:30 Brad Lister Long-term declines in arthropod abundance restructure a rainforest food web
DAY II: August 2, 2013
8:30 Martha M. Muñoz Evolutionary stasis and lability in thermal physiology in a group of tropical lizards
9:00 Luisa Otero Effects of recent climate warming on the reproductive phenology of Puerto Rican Anolis lizards
9:30 Alexander Gunderson Behavioral responses to thermal variation: implications for predicting the biological impacts of climate change
10:00 Michael L. Logan Population level differences in thermal ecology suggest resilience to warming among Honduran Anolis lizards
10:30 Ignacio de la Riva Thermal ecology of Bolivian lizards of the genus Liolaemus: Will climate warming drive them to extinction?
11:00 Mat Vickers Sunshine, on a cloudy day
11:30 Michael Angilletta Symposium highlights
12:00 Leave for Field Trip to El Verde
Anolis pulchellus with a cool aggressive display. Photo by Manuel Leal.
A few days back, we reported on a recent paper on hybridization between the Puerto Rican grass-bush anoles, A. krugi and A. pulchellus. But what better way to get the backstory than to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth? So, check out co-author Manuel Leal’s description of how the paper came to be over at Chipojolab.
Developing bark anole embryo. Photo by Catherine May.
A while back, Anthony Geneva offered excess A. distichus eggs from their breeding colonies to any researchers would could use them. Some were sent to Kenro Kusumi’s lab at Arizona State, and Catherine May has now published some cool images of embryos at different ages (1-7 days old and 14+ days old).
Liolaemus tenuis, if I’m not mistaken. Photo by Felipe Rabanal.
South American fence lizard lookalikes Liolaemus keep on racking up the species numbers as new taxa are described willy-nilly. Over at Tetzoo, Darren Naish has written a nice post entitled “The enormous lioaemine radiation: paradoxical herbivory, viviparity, evolutionary cul-de-sacs and the impending mass extinction.” It’s a very nice overview of the different aspects of diversity of this clade, including summary of an interesting recent paper by Pincheira-Donoso and colleagues, and includes the chilling statement: “some herpetologists think that the Liolaemus radiation will eventually exceed the Anolis (sensu lato!) one in terms of number of species.”
The just concluded evolution meetings in Snowbird, UT featured many highlights, but surely none more sensational than this fantastic tattoo adorning the arm of Tulane graduate student Justin Yeager. Justin, whose very cool research focuses on poison arrow frogs, bioluminescent millipedes and mantisflies, assures that a space is reserved on his other arm for a lady proboscis, which as we all know is hornless.
Word on the street is that there are some other very cool anole tattoos out there. Photos welcome!