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If you missed it in the theater (so to speak), you can now watch Anthony Geneva’s fabulous talk on anole genomics any time!

Here’s what it’s about:

Adaptation and speciation are largely responsible for the origin and maintenance of biological diversity but despite this central role in evolution, many fundamental questions about these interrelated processes remain. The adaptive radiation of Anolis lizards (anoles) is ideally suited for testing hypotheses about speciation and adaptation because they represent a replicated natural experiment. Anole species on the Greater Antilles that occupy similar ecological niches have independently evolved strikingly similar morphologies and behaviors. These ecomorphs have been the focus of decades of detailed analyses which strongly support the adaptive nature of this convergence. Nevertheless, we lack a clear understanding of how morphological adaptation contributes to speciation and we know virtually nothing about the genetic basis of these convergent traits.

In this webinar, Dr. Geneva presents ongoing research in his lab using anole genomes to investigate the processes of adaptation and speciation. He will detail the development of genomic resources for anoles including nine highly complete and contiguous reference genome assemblies and discuss NSF-funded plans to understand the genetic basis of morphological convergence in this group.

Back when this was originally posted in 2012, some viewers claimed to have seen a sixth anole. I can’t find it, but maybe you can!

Photo by Víctor Vásquez-Cruz

Read all about it in this new paper, available online: Víctor Vásquez-Cruz. 2020. New prey records for the Atlantic Central American Milksnake Lampropeltis polyzona (Serpentes: Colubridae). Phyllomedusa  19(1):107–111.

The hatchling Brown Anole as discovered.

Animals spanning a wide taxonomic breadth often serendipitously appear in households and greenhouses after hitching rides in potted plants being transported (e.g., Perry et al., 2006). In Anolis lizards, this pattern is well-documented, especially in the notoriously successful invader, the Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei). Indeed, A. sagrei populations have been established outside of their native range widely across the globe, from Taiwan (Norval et al., 2002) to Bermuda (Stroud et al., 2017) to Angola (Ceríaco and Bauer, 2020).

The hatchling after plucked out of the pot!

In the northeastern United States, Anolis encounters are less common, but are occasionally reported. For example, most recently in January, a Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) was reported from Cape Cod. On Monday, I was alerted to a hatchling Anolis sagrei in Anne Arundel County, Maryland that took a ride home from a Lowe’s in a mother-in-law’s tongue (Dracaena trifasciata). Where this individual originated from is unknown, but as Graham Reynolds (University of North Carolina Asheville) previously writes, do lizards in potted plants constitute range extensions? Echoing the sentiment of Graham, established populations in the states that ring the Gulf of Mexico are presumably assisting in leapfrogging expansions of anoles throughout the United States, further propelling the Brown Anole invasion. Where will A. sagrei turn up next?

Ceríaco, L. and Bauer, A. 2020. Geographic Distribution: Anolis sagrei (Brown Anole) in Angola, Africa. Herpetological Review. 51. 271. 

Norval, G., Mao, J. J., Chu, H. P., and Chen, L. C. 2002. A new record of an introduced species, the brown anole (Anolis sagrei) (Duméril & Bibron, 1837), in Taiwan. Zoological Studies, 41(3), 332–335

Perry, G., Powell, R., & Watson, H. 2006. Keeping invasive species off Guana Island, British Virgin Islands. Iguana: Conservation Natural History, and Husbandry of Reptiles, 13, 273-277.

Stroud, J. T., Giery, S. T., and Outerbridge, M. E. 2017. Establishment of Anolis sagrei on Bermuda represents a novel ecological threat to Critically Endangered Bermuda skinks (Plestiodon longirostris). Biological Invasions, 19(6), 1723-1731.

Bananaquit feeding from a cactus fruit opened by a brown-throated parakeet on the island of Bonaire in the Netherlands Antilles.

Call for contributors to a Caribbean-wide investigation of psittacine-vertebrate commensal relationships!

We are seeking ecologists who have observed vertebrates (here Anoles) feeding on items (fruits, cacti and other stem-sap, or flowers) that some wild native Caribbean psittacine (Macaw, Parrot, or Parakeet) has opened and/or discarded. By opening and/or discarding food items, some psittacines may routinely provide access to resources that might otherwise be out of reach or at least more costly to acquire.

Bananaquit feeding from a parrot-opened orange on the island of Dominica, eastern Caribbean.

We anticipate that the majority of our contributions will be anecdotal and opportunistic field observations. Our deadline to collect all submitted observations is December 1, 2020. All contributors in this project will be listed as co-authors on a manuscript tentatively titled: Caribbean psittacines as indirect controllers of ecosystem dynamics through commensal feeding associations. Here is a template that outlines the types of information that we are hoping to receive from contributors.

Above and to the left are two photos, as examples, of how psittacines provide opportunities for birds to find food (sugary juice, pulp, and even insects) by opening fruit in both an agro-ecosystem and a natural dry forest system.

Please contact Leo Douglas at lrd2107@columbia.edu or leo.douglas@nyu.edu with any questions or for further information. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Here’s the registration page.

A recent study published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology conducted by Levi Storks and Manuel Leal (University of Missouri) investigates problem-solving abilities in the Anolis sagrei of Great Abaco. 

Abstract: 

Despite evidence that organisms are more likely to exhibit their full range of cognitive abilities under conditions found in nature, studies evaluating cognition under such conditions remain rare, particularly in vertebrate species. Here, we conducted an experiment to evaluate problem-solving and motor self-regulation in free-living arboreal lizards, Anolis sagrei, under natural conditions. We presented lizards with a novel detour problem which challenged individuals to circumvent a transparent barrier in order to obtain a food reward. Individuals varied in their ability to solve the detour problem. Furthermore, those that solved the problem were able to improve their performance across trials by modifying the natural response of attempting to strike the reward through the transparent barrier, providing evidence of motor self-regulation. Solving the problem required individuals to modify their typical foraging behavior, as approaching the prey in a single burst of movement that culminated with an attack was an unsuccessful strategy. Contrary to expectations, our findings provide evidence of motor self-regulation in a visually oriented, sit-and-wait predator under natural conditions, suggesting motor self-regulation is not limited by foraging strategy. Our results also underscore the need to evaluate the cognitive abilities of free-living organisms in the wild, particularly for taxa that perform poorly under laboratory conditions.

You can read the full paper here: Storks, L., and Leal, M. 2020. Thinking outside the box: problem-solving in free-living lizards. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 74, 75.

Nancy Greig, Director of the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, tells the story:

Freddie is my dog, a 27 lb mixed breed, and this photo was taken in my back yard. Freddie’s quite the little hunter – fascinated by cockroaches at night and Anolis sagrei by day. The latter have become extremely abundant here in Houston in the last decade or so, out-competing/displacing the native green anole. There are dozens (hundreds?) in my yard. They tend to stay on or near the ground, unlike the green anole, which seems to prefer (especially now) to be higher up in the vegetation (so not of interest to Freddie, fortunately). Male A. sagrei can get quite large and as you can see here, pretty feisty! The standoff lasted several minutes, and was repeated several times. But I’m afraid Freddie got the better of the plucky fellow in the end.