Author: Peter Uetz

Collecting reptile names is one thing, but it’s a different thing to figure out what these names actually mean. At the Reptile Database we have collected the etymologies of more than 11,000 reptile species, but there are still a lot of gaps for subspecies and synonyms. I wonder if anyone in the Anole community is interested in that subject.

More specifically, there are 434 species of anoles with a total of 109 subspecies (excluding nominate subspecies), that is, a total of 543 names. Of those, we do have the etymologies of over 500 taxa, but there are at least 32 missing (all Caribbean subspecies). Here is the list:

• Anolis allogus BARBOUR & RAMSDEN 1919
• Anolis confusus ESTRADA & GARRIDO 1991
• Anolis homolechis (COPE 1864)
• Anolis loysiana (COCTEAU 1836)
• Anolis lucius DUMÉRIL & BIBRON 1837

In addition, we need the etymology of the following subspecies:

The technology-minded among you may say, sure, that’s easy, just ask ChatGPT what these names mean. Here is what ChatGPT says about the first 3 of them:

• Anolis equestris potior:
  • potior: Latin for “better,” “superior,” or “more important.” This could suggest that this subspecies is seen as a more distinctive or notable form compared to others.
• Anolis strahmi abditus:
  • abditus: Latin for “hidden” or “concealed.” This might indicate a subspecies that is difficult to find, perhaps due to a cryptic lifestyle or remote habitat.
• Anolis lineatopus ahenobarbus:
  • ahenobarbus: Latin for “bronze-bearded” (ahenus meaning “bronze” and barba meaning “beard”). This likely refers to a feature such as a bronze or reddish coloration on the chin or throat.

You can see that ChatGPT has a pretty good grasp of Latin, and it can make good educated guesses, but it is often not quite sure about the finer details behind species names.

When it comes to eponyms, it’s much worse. Here is an example for some of the eponyms of Pholidoscelis auberi (apologies, not an anole, but a Caribbean Teiid with currently 39 subspecies, of which at least 10 are eponyms, so it’s a good example). Let’s take a look at these 10, namely

• Pholidoscelis auberi auberi (COCTEAU 1838)
• Pholidoscelis auberi garridoi (SCHWARTZ 1970)
• Pholidoscelis auberi granti (SCHWARTZ 1970)
• Pholidoscelis auberi hardyi (SCHWARTZ 1970)
• Pholidoscelis auberi kingi (MCCOY 1970)
• Pholidoscelis auberi orlandoi (SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1975)
• Pholidoscelis auberi paulsoni (SCHWARTZ in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970)
• Pholidoscelis auberi richmondi (MCCOY in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970)
• Pholidoscelis auberi schwartzi (GALI & GARRIDO 1987)
• Pholidoscelis auberi zugi (SCHWARTZ in SCHWARTZ & MCCOY 1970)

Here is what ChatGPT says:

1. auberi: Named after Paul Aubert, a naturalist or explorer, as many species are named in honor of individuals. It was first described by Jean Theodore Cocteau in 1838, hence the name Pholidoscelis auberi auberi.
2. garridoi: Likely named after a person with the surname Garrido, honoring their contribution to science.
3. orlandoi: Likely named after an individual named Orlando, possibly in honor of a person or place associated with the subspecies’ discovery or description.

I save you the remaining ones, because you get the gist: ChatGPT has no idea who these people are, including the namesake of P. a. auberi, which  was not named after Paul Aubert, as ChatGPT claims, but rather after Pedro Alejandro Auber (1786-1843), a Cuban botanist and naturalist of French origin (née Pierre Alexandre Auber). The only eponym ChatGPT got right was Pholidoscelis auberi schwartzi, named after Albert Schwartz (1923-1992), the doyen of Caribbean herpetology — one out of ten. Ouch!

So, if you are interested in etymology, of Anolis or otherwise, please let me know. As said, we have about 100o reptile names in need of clarification.

Thanks 🙂

Hello all,

Ben Marshall and my colleagues at the Reptile Database have recently tried to take stock of the reptile photos on some of the most prominent web sites

Anolis porcatus, female, near Matanzas, Cuba – a close relative of the most photographed Anolis ever, A. carolinensis.

that collect nature photos, namely, iNaturalist, Flickr, CalPhotos, HerpMapper, Wikimedia, and the Reptile Database itself. We came up with more than 1 million reptile photos, the vast majority being on iNat. While the Reptile Database has much fewer photos overall, we do have photos of close to 6000 reptile species (with iNat having about 6500 species). While about 8000 reptile species have photos on these sites, almost 2000 have photos in only one of them (see Marshall et al. 2020 for details).

That begs the question “how do anoles fit into that picture?” — literally. Of the 436 species of anoles that the Reptile Database currently lists, at least 367 have photos on some of these websites, again with iNat leading (302 species), and all the others trailing far behind with Flickr (177), the  Reptile Database (173), Calphotos (101), Herpmapper (92), and Wikimedia (55). Not surprisingly, both Anolis carolinensis and A. sagrei are among the top-10 most photographed reptiles with about 30,000 photos each on iNaturalist alone! By contrast, there are at least 67 species of anole of which there seem to be no photos on any of these sites (and possibly nowhere else on the internet). Here is the list: Anolis_Photos (Excel spreadsheet).

As pointed out in our paper, photos are not just nice to look at, they do carry a substantial amount of information, as all anologists doubtlessly know: besides morphology, you can see behavior, diet, ecological adaptations, habitats, and many other things on a photo (or video).

That said, at the Reptile Database, we are increasingly moving towards standardized photos of reptile species, ideally showing diagnostic characters. To see what I am talking about, take a look at Levi Gray’s excellent dewlap panels that he has presented here at Anole Annals and in his blog. Similarly, over the past year or two, I have taken pictures of more than 1000 reptile specimens in various collections (mostly NOT of anoles, admittedly), mainly to document such characters. They will go into the Reptile Database over the coming year (or probably years). Below are two examples, Anolis reconditus from Jamaica, and A. carolinensis from the Bahamas.

Anolis reconditus, CMNAR 9931, from Jamaica. Note the keeled scales which are not visible on any of the photos on iNaturalist.

Anolis carolinensis, ZMB 18723, Nassau, Bahamas. Compare to A. reconditus.

Obviously, it would be better if we had photos like these of all anoles — or all reptiles for that matter. Well, we have to start somewhere. In addition to the >18,000 photos in the Reptile Database, we need many more to document morphological diversity. Again, one idea is to use these photos to extract information such as character data. So, if you happen to have photos of any of those undocumented (or under-documented) species, please consider sending them to photos@reptile-database.org — or to one of the other sites, of course. Thanks!

I got these photos of Cuban anoles from Allan Finlayson, taken around Las Terrazas, Artemisia. Can anybody help with their IDs? Thanks!

P.S.: Sorry, there are no better photos, I believe. Locality: http://goo.gl/maps/oHfAS