Category: Anole Annals Trivia Page 3 of 4

Anole Annals Trivia: What are We Looking At?

Invertebrates associated with Hispaniolan anoles. Scale bar in right panel is in millimeters.

The invertebrates in the image above were photographed yesterday in the Dominican Republic.  Today’s trivia is related to these invertebrates and consists of three questions:

1. What are these invertebrates and how do they interact with anoles?

2. How many individuals are in the right panel (note: all of these individuals were associated with a single anole)?

3. How do these invertebrates factor into Dominican folklore?

Find the Anole: Phenacosaurus Edition

Phenacosaurus orcesi, Ecuador

Here is a shot recently taken during our first “Day in the Life of a Phenacosaur” video recording.  We tracked this subadult male from 6 am to 6 pm!

Name That Anole: Poster Edition

Rich Glor has thrown down the gauntlet. Who can name the five anoles pictured on the CaribHerp poster in the last post? I know what they are, but I had to get help on #5, which does not sport the typical look for that species (and the esteemed Dr. Glor’s guesses are incorrect).

Happy Half Birthday, Anole Annals

Anole Annals more or less turned one-half-year-old this month, making this a good time to look back and reflect. Readership continues to increase—we’re now getting an average of 202 readers and 351 page views a day. AA has published 208 posts by 30 authors from four continents and the Caribbean. For those new to the fold, here’s an annotated list of the 12 most popular posts, as judged by number of page views*:

1. Society for the Study of Evolution Announces Changes to the Name of its Journal

Far and away the most viewed, thanks to some Facebook re-posting in highly visible sites, this post documented the repeated appearance of anoles on the cover of the journal Evolution. Combined with the fact that an anole was the frontispiece for the program for the society’s annual meeting and that four of the six young scientists honored for their contributions at the meeting work on anoles (here, here, and here, plus Rob Pringle), the
suggestion that the society should reconsider it’s name seems quite reasonable.

2. Anole Annals Trivia: Find the Anoles

Always a crowd pleaser. ‘bout time for another one. Suggestions welcome.

Find the Anole Answers and the Four Anole Photo Challenge

It’s time to provide the answers to last week’s quiz, and this reporter–an amateur at creating such events–must admit to having egg on his face. First, though, congrats to WEs and Joe for their astute observations and conclusions. As Joe surmised and Wes speculated, the photos are both from the Bahamas, Staniel Cay to be exact.

The first photo has not three, but four anoles! Well, 3 1/2 to be exact. And the 1/2 anole is crucial. The obvious green anole is A. smaragdinus, the two upper ones are A. distichus, and the bottom half anole–predicted by Joe–is A. sagrei.

 

Find the Anoles

It’s time for the latest installment of our perennial crowd pleaser, Find the Anole!

In picture #1, we have three questions:

1) How many species of anoles are in this picture?

2) Which species are they?

3) Bonus Points: What is the interesting evolutionary/biogeographical story represented here?

Picture #2 is a tough one.

Find the Anole: Disney World Edition

This shot was taken by anole biologist Todd Jackman on Main St. USA during a recent trip to Disney World.  Can you spot the anole?

Memorial Wall for Fallen Heroes of Natural History

Over at strange behaviors, Richard Conniff has posted an interesting memorial list:

The Wall of the Dead

The list sets out to honor naturalists who have lost their lives in the field or during other natural history pursuits.  A lot of sad stories behind the names here, but a lot of epic ones too.  I would bet that a great many of these fallen naturalists died doing what they loved best.

One of the names on the list is Ken Miyata, a young anole biologist who passed away in 1983. Ken was a student of Ernest Williams at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology in the late 70s (Ph.D. 1980), and he conducted fantastic work on anoles and other reptiles and amphibians, primarily in Ecuador. Although many of us probably know him for the mark he made on tropical herpetology during his brief career, Ken was much better known as a world-class fly fisherman, and it was that passion that ultimately killed him (see a brief retrospective here; see also these recent mentions of Ken by his old friends Jerry Coyne and Greg Mayer on the blog Why Evolution is True).

A name that’s missing from this wall is Preston Webster, another seminal anole biologist who died too young in a 1975 car crash.  You can suggest additions to Conniff’s list in the comments of that blog, and he’ll add them.  Does anyone who knew Webster want to put a few words on this site?  I know very little about the man, but if there aren’t any takers, I’ll try to add him in a couple of days. I believe Webster was in the Dakotas when he died, and I don’t know if he was engaged in any ‘naturalist’s pursuits’ at the time (certainly not on anoles!).  But this probably doesn’t matter – there are other great biologists on the list who died early in unrelated accidents.

There are several other herpetologists mentioned.  Are there any other anole biologists missing from the list?

Anole Annals Trivia: Find the Anoles

I took this photograph last summer in the Sierra de Bahorucos of the Dominican Republic, not far from Polo.  The first to answer the following three questions about this photo wins the respect of anole lovers around the world: (1) how many anoles are in this photo?, (2) what ecomorphs to they represent?, and (3) what species are they?  First correct answers in the comments wins.

Green Anole Escapes from Circus (ca. 1920)

If you spend much time at all in the collections of a natural history museum, you’re guaranteed to come across some weird and hilarious stuff (e.g., see this book).  Here’s a gem of a specimen label – this is a green anole skeleton from the Smithsonian (photo and “discovery” by Thom Sanger).

circus fugitive anole

The collecting remarks seem odd enough that I figured it might be an inside joke.  But Thom found the following question posted on the Circus History Message Board, which probably explains everything.…

“I have a somewhat of a bizarre question. My aunt, who is in her late 70’s, told my husband and I a story about when she went to the circus a child. My Aunt told us that when she was little girl her mother would buy her a little lizard that was attached a chain that was then attached to a pin. The pin would be worn and the lizard would walk around you until it died.”

The message board has replies from many old-time circus-goers confirming that Anolis carolinensis were indeed tied to strings and peddled to kids at the circus.  According to one poster, the lizards were called “bugs” and the peddlers “bug men.”  (!?!?)

“Jennifer, the lizards (which have been called chameleons) were known as “bugs” and the sellers on the midway were known as “bug men”. The pitchman would pin a “bug” on his lapel to be viewed as harmless and he carried the “bugs” for sale mounted on a board. Unfortunately the “bugs” didn’t last too long after leaving the circus grounds but kids loved them. John Goodall”

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