It has recently come to my attention that several websites (e.g. wikipedia) report that male anoles produce ultrasonic hisses while fighting. I’ve been trying to track down the source of this information, but I can’t find any reference to ultrasonic sound production in anoles in the scientific literature. Does anyone know the source of this information? Can anyone confirm that anoles are capable of producing ultrasonic sounds? I’d be grateful to anyone who can shed any light on this rumor.
Category: Anole Annals Trivia Page 2 of 4
Breakdown of anoles in the Schwartz collection housed at KU, highlighting proportional representation of the five most frequently sampled species.
Albert Schwartz was a prolific describer of new anole species and author of peerless contributions to our understanding of geographic variation within and among widespread anole species (see 1 and 2). In addition to his published contributions, Schwartz and his colleagues accumulated a massive collection of preserved specimens that continues to serve as a foundation for research on anoles. Although these specimens are now housed at a number of institutions, the bulk of his anole material – 15,511 specimens to be precise – can now be found at the University of Kansas. This collection includes representatives of 93 anole species, but the sampling among species is highly uneven and the five most frequently sampled species account for more than 35% of the total collection. Sampling of these top five species ranges from 552 to 1838 individuals. My trivia question to you, my fellow anole enthusiasts, is “What are the top five species in Schwartz’s KU collection?” As a hint, I’ll remind you that Schwartz’s efforts were focused primarily on the northern Caribbean and that he spent the last few decades of his career working extensively on Hispaniola.
The species pictured above has one of the largest dewlaps of any anole, with a ceratobranchial that extends posteriorly well beyond the forelimbs. What species is it?
A holiday quiz- can anyone ID this species? Found in the twilight zone of a cave in a small stream (hint) entering the main cave stream. Isla Bastimentos, Bocas del Toro Province, Panama. Apologies for the picture, one needs a good reason before hand to bring a nice camera into wet and muddy caves.
Has this species been reported from the BDT Archipelago?
The following West Indian species are common in their appropriate island habitats, but these here may not look typical for their species. Either the form is a geographic color morph or just kind of non representive of the species.
For some of you sage anolologists this may be somewhat easy, however I’d be curious to know how good some of you are…
I will provide answers in a few days. Have fun.
1.
2.
3.
A glorious event–the 100,000th viewing of an Anole Annals page—is about to occur. In fact, the very next page to be viewed, perhaps the first person to read these words. I should add that this is the result of 59,425 unique viewing sessions. And almost all of this viewage has occurred in the past year. Whomever’s next, let us know who you are so your name can be inscribed in the AA Hall of Fame.
Somewhere in this photo is a sleeping anole. The species is one that has only been reported from the Dominican Republic a few times.
If you can find the sleeping anole in those photo, you will have contributed to cataloging the anole fauna of the Dominican Republic. Points if you can identify the species. Hint – the photo was taken on the northern slopes of the Sierra de Bahorucco approx. 12km east of the Haitian border.
From this site: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=2791 (note: you have to go to the site for the answers; the link below is part of the image pasted into this post and is not active)
Both images from ganeshdhane's flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ganeshdhane/
Even though anoles aren’t the only lizards to have evolved dewlaps, their spectacular diversity of dewlap shapes and sizes certainly makes them leaders in the global arms race for dewlap dominance. Nevertheless, I recently came across some photos of the spectacularly dewlapped-agamid Sitana ponticeriana doing something I don’t think anoles are capable of – displaying while standing on two hind limbs. I’ve seen Australian agamids stand up for extended periods of time to display, dissipate heat, or scan the horizon, but I’ve never seen an anole do this for more than a few seconds while reaching for a new perch. Sure, anoles can do lots of other stuff to get the message across – push-ups, full-ups, elaborate tail-wags, tongue protrusions, nuchal crest extensions, gapping, etc. – but I’m just not sure they’re built to stand. My question to all the anoles lovers out there: has anybody ever seen one of our beloved creatures displaying while standing on its hind-limbs?
PS – Lots of other amazing photos of the dewlapped agamids are on Flickr
Looking through old image files I found the above picture. At first glance, this may look like an unearthed fossil. No way. Try to earn some points by answering the questions below:
- Which species is this?
- What happened to it (cause of death)?
- Where (within the DR) or in which type of habitat did this take place (this is linked to #1 and #2)?
- What is the dark patch in the background/horizon, located in the upper right of picture (linked to #2 and #3).