A good investment in the future. Photo by David Delaney

What moms eat and how much they eat can affect their reproduction, as well as many characteristics of their offspring – this has been shown in many different animals. But are these effects found in anoles as well? Two recently published papers from my lab address this topic in Anolis sagrei. In the first paper (coauthored with Matt Lovern), we housed reproductive females under two diet treatments (low vs. high amounts of food) for about four months in the lab. After quantifying reproductive variables (e.g., egg production, egg size, yolk steroid hormones) and offspring phenotypes, we showed that diet treatment had no effect on how many eggs a female produced and on allocation of steroid hormones to yolk, but females in the high-food treatment consistently produced larger eggs (resulting in larger offspring) than those in the low-food treatment. Also, regardless of maternal feeding treatment, egg size and the concentration of yolk testosterone increased over successive eggs that females produced.

We then incubated the eggs and raised the offspring under controlled conditions in the lab. Offspring produced by mothers in the high-food treatment had increased growth rates and survival; these patterns were driven by offspring size (larger size offspring in the high-food maternal treatment). We then performed a complementary study where we reduced maternal yolk investment by experimentally extracting yolk from eggs in order to determine if the effects of maternal diet were mediated by the amount of yolk invested into eggs. The effect of experimental yolk reduction on egg/offspring size, growth and survival mirrored the effects of maternal diet. These findings suggest that the maternal effects of diet on offspring growth and survival are likely mediated by how much yolk females allocate to eggs. This study provides evidence for a functional mechanism of diet-mediated maternal effects and demonstrates that there are fitness consequences of maternal diet.

Whether these effects of maternal diet are adaptive was the topic of the second study (coauthored by three undergraduate students in my lab). This “follow-up” study (conducted a few years later) was also a controlled lab-based study, where we housed mothers under similar “high” versus “low” diet treatments as described above (but the treatments were not entirely the same for logistical reasons). The resultant offspring were then raised reciprocally under the same two diet treatments that their mothers experienced. This experimental design (two levels of maternal diet and two levels of offspring diet) enabled us to test whether low food availability to mothers “prepares” offspring for low-food environments, and likewise, whether high-food maternal environments “prepare” offspring for environments with plenty of food.

Surprisingly, the effect of diet treatment on maternal reproduction was the opposite of that found in the first study. This time the number of eggs produced by females in the low-food treatment was half that produced by females in the high-food treatment; egg size was not affected at all by diet treatment. These contrasting results could be explained by the slightly different feeding regimes – in the first study, all lizards were given the same amount at each feeding, but the feeding frequency per week differed between treatments, whereas in the second study the feeding frequency was the same between treatments and the quantity of food provided differed between treatments.

Despite this, the primary finding of the study was that offspring survival was relatively high when there was plenty of food available to them (not surprising). However, offspring also survived comparatively well under poor food conditions, but only when their mothers also had little amounts of food during reproduction. These findings suggest that poor maternal environments might ‘prepare’ offspring for environments with little food resources.

This just in from Twitter.

Introducing Anolis elcopeensis. (B) is a female; the rest are males.

In their new paper in Amphibian & Reptile Conservation, Poe and colleagues note that thirteen new species of Anolis have been described from Panama since 2007, bringing that country’s total to 44. They now raise those numbers to 15 and 45.

The first thing you need to know about Anolis elcopeensis is how to pronounce it. It’s named after the park formerly known as El Cope National Park in Panama, so it’s el-coh-pay-en-sis (the park now goes by the name Parque Nacional G. D. Omar Torrijos H.).

The second thing you need to know is that A. elcopeensis is a very close relative of A. fuscoauratus, a species widely-distributed throughout Amazonia and elsewhere in South America. Anolis elcopeensis differs from A. fuscoauratus and related species by its orange dewlap and small size (maximum: 45 mm snout-vent length). Mitochondrial DNA differences support its designation as a distinct species.

With the recognition of A. elcopeensis, that brings us to 399 Anolis species (according to a search on the Reptile Database)! Woo-hoo! And I suspect there are more soon to come. Indeed, Poe et al. suggest that A. fuscoauratus may be a complex of many cryptic species. Stay tuned!

Abstract:

We describe Anolis elcopeensis, a new species of anole lizard from low to moderate elevations of the Pacific slope of the Cordillera Central of central Panama. Anolis elcopeensis is a close relative of and resembles the Amazonian species A. fuscoauratus but differs from it and similar species mainly in body size, male dewlap color, and mitochondrial DNA. We estimate the phylogenetic position of the new species relative to all species of Anolis, and analyze variation in the mitochondrial COI gene among some populations of the new species. We also discuss the mythical presence of Anolis fuscoauratus in Panama, document the possible occurrence of A. maculiventris in Panama, and present preliminary evidence for multiple cryptic fuscoauratus-like species in eastern Panama.

The cover highlights the paper “Restriction Site-Associated DNA Sequencing (RAD-seq) Reveals an Extraordinary Number of Transitions among Gecko Sex-Determining Systems” by Tony Gamble and colleagues.

Michele Johnson’s Lab at Trinity University seems to have brains on the brain. Jake Stercula recently reported on his studies on how the different preferred temperatures of Puerto Rican anoles species affects their brains. That is, how do brains of different species handle being at different temperatures? Read all about his research on “how temperature affects lizard brain cells.”

Meanwhile, Johnson lab member Maria Jaramillo is studying how lizard brains process different images. She’s showing anoles videos of another lizard displaying or of a leaf and investigating how brain activity differs.

A little over two weeks ago, I had a paper focusing on Anolis gundlachi published in Herpetology Notes. I had known since I was a child that I wanted to be a herpetologist, but when I graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor’s in Environmental Studies, there weren’t many opportunities in my area; I fell into environmental consulting, where I stayed for five years.

Eventually, I came to realize that my life’s journey would never change if I didn’t force it to.  In addition to my love of herpetology, I had always wanted to live in the tropics, so when my lease in Atlanta was up in 2008, I sold most of my belongings and went to live and volunteer at Las Casas de la Selva, an approximately 1,000 acre sustainable forestry project in Patillas, Puerto Rico.

Started on the remnants of an old, abandoned coffee plantation, in the early 1980’s the founders of the project planted the introduced timber tree “Blue mahoe” (Talipariti elatum) on approximately 300 acres, allowing the rest of the property to undergo secondary succession.  Now, the T. elatum is being extracted, and younger native trees that have grown beneath the plantation canopy are left behind. The project is staffed entirely by volunteers, and scientific research is carried out with help from the Earthwatch Institute.  For those not aware, Earthwatch is a non-profit organization that provides a unique form of ecotourism mixed with research. Potential travelers fill out an application, and if approved, join a group for an expedition to one of the dozens of projects Earthwatch partners with, for the sole purpose of assisting with scientific research.  I was given permission to design a study and use Earthwatch volunteers to gather data.

My research idea was simple enough, to set up plots in areas with and without Talipariti elatum and see if the presence of the tree made a difference in anole abundance.  With four to six Earthwatch groups per year, I was well on my way to collecting large amounts of data. Meanwhile, as this was my first field survey ever, I was teaching myself “on the fly” through trial and error, as well as spending nights in my casita reading books on research design, ecology, and Puerto Rican herpetofauna.

One of the most disheartening moments during my research was when I had gained enough experience to realize…that I needed to start over.  After reading numerous articles and books dealing with anoles and general ecology, after accumulating almost two years in the field, I decided that I couldn’t in good faith rely on the data I had gathered at the start of my project. I was too inexperienced when I had first started the study, and I felt that I simply couldn’t be certain of the identifications I had made during previous counts; such are the hazards of self-teaching. I was also convinced that in my attempts to survey as large an area as possible, I had included far too many plots in my study, preventing me from gathering useful data; even if the anole identifications were accurate in each plot, I had so many that I had ended up with few anole counts that allowed me to compare the seasonal abundance of one plot to another.  I reduced the size of my study area to one “control” area (without mahoe) and one “plantation” area (with mahoe), with each area containing six plots.  It was a hard lesson to learn, and even harder to admit my mistakes to myself in the first place.

I also learned a lesson in regard to “citizen science,” of which I am still a huge advocate. I now know that in order to get reliable data, it is up to the researcher to set aside an adequate amount of time for training, as well as to implement a research design that is appropriate for the level of experience your volunteers have.

I restarted my research; and although at first I was decidedly taciturn at going back to the starting line, as I conducted more and more counts, I realized I was getting good, usable data. After I felt I had enough counts, I brought my survey to a close, wrote the paper manuscript, reached out to more experienced colleagues to review it, and eventually submitted it to Herpetology Notes, and received feedback and requests for revisions.  Now, that paper has been published, and to me, it means so much more than just the results showing that the null hypothesis couldn’t be rejected–my paper is proof-positive that I can do this. I can be a herpetologist. I can learn the proper methods and protocols of research design. As someone who is largely self-taught and is getting a late start, completing this study make me certain that my best is yet to come, and I can make useful contributions to the discipline.

The paper‘s abstract:

The island of Puerto Rico has one of the highest rates of regrowth of secondary forests largely due to abandonment of previously agricultural land. The study was aimed at determining the impact of the presence of Talipariti elatum, a timber species planted for forest enrichment, on the abundance of anoles at Las Casas de la Selva, a sustainable forestry project located in Patillas, Puerto Rico. The trees planted around 25 years ago are fast-growing and now dominate canopies where they were planted. Two areas, a control area of second-growth forest without T. elatum and an area within the T. elatum plantation, were surveyed over an 18 month period.  The null hypothesis that anole abundance within the study areas is independent of the presence of T. elatum could not be rejected. The findings of this study may have implications when designing forest management practices where maintaining biodiversity is a goal.

We once discussed what the appropriate term would be for a group of anoles, but what about a family of anoles? Is there such a thing? If not, there is now.

Just in case stick figures aren’t an appropriate representation for your family group, look no further than the green anole window clings made personally by herp. lover Andrew. These aren’t yet available on the web, but Andrew may knock a few out for you if you write him directly. I did and now I have one of the most stylish minivans in Florida!

Photo by Kristin Winchell

Cannibalism and a three-and-a-half legged lizard–field trips don’t start any better than that! Read all about it on Kristin Winchell’s website, Adaptability.

Photo by Ambika Kamath

Behavioral research is often reduced to a large set of data points, necessary of course for statistical analysis. But sometimes what gets lost is actual knowledge of what animals do in their natural habitats. There’s no substitute for just watching an animal over the course of a day or  a week. Often what you’ll see is that animals are not little automatons, repetitively undertaking particular actions in accord (or not) with our theories. Rather, they have lives where they do all kinds of idiosyncratic behaviors, the sort of quirky detail that often get lost in high-falutin’ analyses of behavior. Ambika Kamath demonstrated just this in her recent post, “A Week in the Life of U131.” Here’s the first paragraph. You’ll have to go to her website to read the rest:

When you’re collecting data on the behaviour of individual animals over time, as I am this summer, your observations sometimes feel less like a collection of numbers and more like a collection of personal narratives. Of course, the data are both numbers and narratives, and when it comes time to analyze this collection of datapoints and understand the patterns that emerge from it, the numbers will be all that matter. But in the meanwhile, before I can look the bigger picture, I enjoy considering the individual narratives. And this week, I encountered a lizard whose story illustrates why it’s worth considering these narratives at all.

The goal of Anole Annals is to be the clearinghouse for all things Anolis, the place that the anole community turns to for the exchange of information or ideas. To do so, we welcome–no, heartily encourage–contributions from anyone and everyone.

Who can post? Anyone who has something to say about the biology, natural history, or amazing-ness of anoles (well, within reason–we leave anole husbandry and sales issues to other websites). And fear not–you’ll have an audience. Anole Annals is now routinely visited by 600-1000 readers a day. That sounds like a broader impact to me!

Anole Annals is a good place to let the anole community know what you’re working on, like Ambika Kamath’s recent overview of her fascinating work on anole social behavior. And, it’s a great way to spread word of your recently published work–why not provide a short precis or tell the backstory of how the paper came to be, like Liam Revell recently did? It’s a great way of giving people the short story of what you’ve done and get them interested in reading the whole paper.

If you are fortunate to live in an anole-inhabited region, tell us about your local species, like David Alfonso’s recent post on the anoles of Colombia. And if you’ve observed something unusual, here’s a good place to report it, like Graham Reynolds note on twig anoles using mangroves.

And it’s just a great place to ask a question, post a photo, or report an observation. Plus, announcements of relevant conferences or personal milestones, such as newly-minted Ph.D.s, are always appropriate.

Posting is easy, and really doesn’t take much time. More than 100 scientists and anole enthusiasts have written posts–you should too! And if you’ve done so before, you’re overdue for another one. Don’t overthink it–just post today!