Anole Annals

Editor’s Note: A report from the Sunshine State

I was asked to report on my most recent Anolis garmani exploits here in South Florida, So here goes. Remember, I’m not a scientist, or an author, just a funny old man with whiskers!

Thursday, June 27, 2013

An old friend had asked me to find him a few “Nice Green Anoles.” His intent, I believe, was to have me supply Anolis carolinensis for him to breed.

OOPS!!!

He received 1.2 young adult Anolis garmani!

My friend is handicapped & lives on a fixed income. He is also a very knowledgeable (& well known in certain circles) Herper. I thought he might enjoy these highly intelligent &, at times, PRECOCIOUS creatures!

SO!

I left work early, cuz I can do things like that! I know of several populations of Anolis garmani, from Southern Dade Co. to Northern Palm Beach Co., other than the colony at All-America Park. I decided to visit one in North Dade Co. ½ way between work & my friend’s house.

In the populations that I know of there are several types:

1) Green with a dark (½) tail & a red blotch on the top of the head

2) Green with powder blue ½ tail or more & blue bands. With or without the red blotch on head

Herpetological Publications

By Tom Sinclair

On July 6, 2013

In All Posts

I am a retired businessman who is also an avocational herpetologist. I am currently disposing of a good portion of my library including many papers on Anolis. All at very reasonable prices if I do say so myself. If you would like to be on my mailing lists (e-mails weekly containing around fifty titles) you can e-mail me at tsinclair2@comcast.net

New Mexican Amber Anole

By Jonathan Losos

On July 6, 2013

In Anoles and Anolologists in the News

La Jornada en Linea just published an article on a new Mexican amber anole with information provided by paleontologist Francisco Riquelme. As discussed previously in AA‘s pages, this is only the second anole in amber from anywhere other than the Dominican Republic, the first, Anolis electrum, having been described by Skip Lazell in 1965. That specimen is very incomplete such that little can be said about its taxonomy or lifestyle. It will be interesting to learn more about this one.

Community Structure And Phylogeny Of Cuban Trunk-Ground Anoles

By Jonathan Losos

On July 5, 2013

In New Research

Anolis jubar. Photo by Miguel Landestoy

Two months ago, Masakado Kawata summarized the ongoing collaborative research program between Tohoku University in Japan, Habana University and the National Museum and Natural History of Cuba. The first fruit of this research has now been published in this month’s issue of Ecosphere (lead author Antonio Cádiz recently received his Ph.D. from Tohoku).

The paper is the result of an impressive field research program in which 12 species of Cuban trunk-ground anoles were studied at 34 sites throughout the breadth of Cuba. The abstract pasted below provides the nitty-gritties (and, of course, read the paper yourself), but here are some of the interesting take-home messages:

1. Three species–A. allogus, A. homolechis, and A. sagrei–are widespread throughout Cuba, but the remainder have localized distributions.

2. Co-occurring species are a phylogenetically random subset of the clade, a result that obtains because of the combination of localized and widespread species that co-occur (four can occur in sympatry and five in an area).

3. Sympatric species are ecologically overdispersed, with species occupying different thermal microhabitats co-occurring.

4. Both A. allogus and A. jubar are paraphyletic with deeply divergent, geographically disjunct clades. The authors treat the clades as different species, and perhaps it is time for someone to formally describe them as such.

5. Anolis delafuentei–known, if I’m not mistaken, from a single individual–defied efforts to recollect it. Is this a real species? Is it extant?

Overall, this is an excellent study that could serve as model for the study of other species-rich ecomorph clades, both on Cuba (e.g., alutaceus group) and elsewhere.

Abstract:

Photos Of Aquatic Anoles Wanted For A Paper

By Martha Muñoz

On July 3, 2013

In All Posts

Greetings! I’m writing with a request for all the photographically-inclined readers of Anole Annals. I’m in the process of finishing up a manuscript looking at the ecology and morphology of four species of Central American aquatic anoles – Anolis aquaticus, A. lionotus, A. oxylophus, and A. poecilopus. I would very much like to include a figure showing a good picture of each of these species. Sadly, my photographing skills are quite poor and I do not have any suitable images to include in this paper. I think the readers of this paper would be well-served to have a good image of each of the species examined and I would really like to include some pictures. Do any of you readers have an image or two of any of these species that you would care to share with me? You would, of course, be credited as the author of the photograph, and it would be published in a scientific study. If so, then please share your images with me at mmunoz@oeb.harvard.edu. Thank you!

Anole Talks At Herp Meetings

By Jonathan Losos

On July 3, 2013

In New Research

This year’s herp meetings will be held next week (July 10-15) in Albuquerque. Appropriately enough given the venue, it’s the Steve Poe Lab Show, with eight presentations emanating therefrom. Nonetheless, there are a number of other anole talks as well. Below is the list of the talks and below the fold, and attached as a pdf, are the abstracts.

AA is looking for reporters to provide eyewitness accounts of these talks. Many of the abstracts are cagey about what their actual findings are, no doubt out of paranoia and, more likely, an early abstract submission deadline combined with talks that are probably still being finalized. Those attending these talks, please let us know–any level of detail would be welcome!

Titles:

Julian Davis, Steven Poe

0702 Herp. Systematics & Evolution, San Miguel, Saturday 13 July 2013

A Phylogenetic Analysis of the Anolis pentaprion species group

Anthony Geneva, Richard Glor

0746 SSAR SEIBERT AWARD SYSTEMATICS & EVOLUTION, San Miguel, Friday 12 July 2013

Reproductive Isolation in Anolis lizards

Levi Gray, Robbie Burger

0512 SSAR SEIBERT AWARD PHYSIOLOGY & MORPHOLOGY, Galisteo/Aztec, Friday 12 July 2013

Do allometries reveal evolutionary constraints in Anolis lizards?

Aja King, Steven Poe

0610 SSAR EVOLUTION, SYSTEMATICS, AND GENETICS BEST STUDENT POSTER AWARD, Poster Session I, NW Exhibit Hall, Friday 12 July 201

Colonization and Differentiation in the Honduran Bay Islands Populations of Anolis allisoni

Ian Latella, Steve Poe

0662 SSAR ECOLOGY, NATURAL HISTORY, AND DISTRIBUTION BEST STUDENT POSTER AWARD, Poster Session I, NW Exhibit Hall, Friday 12 July 2013

Habitat Use in Naturalized Anolis Lizard Communities

Deidre Linden, Steven Poe

0692 SSAR EVOLUTION, SYSTEMATICS, AND GENETICS BEST STUDENT POSTER AWARD, Poster Session I, NW Exhibit Hall, Friday 12 July 2013

Estimation of phylogeny of the Anolis cupreus (Squamata: Dactyloidae) species group

Kirsten Nicholson, John Phillips, Sarah Burton

0288 Poster Session III, NW Exhibit Hall, Sunday 14 July 2013

Biogeography of Norops capito: Second Example of a Contradictory Pattern

Steven Poe

0460 Poster Session III, NW Exhibit Hall, Sunday 14 July 2013

Identification Key for Anolis Lizards

Steven Poe

0455 Herp Systematics & Evolution, San Miguel, Saturday 13 July 2013

Phylogeny of Anolis

Bradley Truett, Steven Poe

0471 Poster Session II, NW Exhibit Hall, Saturday 13 July 2013

Revisiting the Aquatic Anole Ecomorph

Kristin Winchell

0664 SSAR ECOLOGY, NATURAL HISTORY, AND DISTRIBUTION BEST STUDENT POSTER AWARD, Poster Session I, NW Exhibit Hall, Friday 12 July 2013

Phenotypic shifts in urban populations of the tropical lizard, Anolis cristatellus

Abstracts below the fold

Knight Anole Displaying

By Jonathan Losos

On July 2, 2013

In Anole Photographs

Anolis equestris displaying. Photo by Ultra Violet.

We at AA obviously have a soft spot for those monstrously grotesque, yet winningly appealing giants of the anole world. Here’s a lovely picture that just passed through the tweet-o-sphere. Good pictures of knight anoles dewlapping are few and far between, and Ultra Violet kindly allowed us to reproduce it here.

Snake Lovin’ Guy Has A Thing For Stream Anoles

By Jonathan Losos

On July 2, 2013

In Natural History Observations

Photo by Frank Burbrink

Ophidiologist extraordinaire Frank Burbrink posted a photo of this Costa Rican anole on Facebook, challenging several of us to identify it. The consensus is that it’s A. lionotus or perhaps A. poecilopus. Any thoughts? More importantly, Frank of snake phylogenetics fame (including a paper on Caribbean serpents), had this to say:

“I really like these streamside anoles. Ecologically and morphologically they seem so un-Anolis like. There were tons of these guys along the wet rocks also inhabited by plethodontids nearby. I would love to see an Anole Annals post about these the very wet streamside anoles.”

So, here one is! He goes on:

“First off…they seemed unusually wet and cold. Second they were everywhere. Third they seemed to be able to hold onto the face of very slippery large rocks (boulders)…some right next to the waterfalls. I am not sure how they actually got there…unless they swam and crawled up the face of the rock. That seems like it wouldn’t take much effort to observe how they do it. Anyhow, everything about them was very non-anole like—other than the huge dewlap, body and head shape.”

Photo by Frank Burbrink

“They seem to exist in a niche not filled by other lizards …certainly not even the semi-aquatic gymnothalmids. It makes you wonder from what ancestral ecomorph they invaded this particular niche…which again seems so un-Anolis” like.

Editor’s note: we’ll be hearing soon about the talks in the upcoming herp meetings, one of which is on aquatic anoles. More on that soon.

A twofer. Photo by Frank Burbrink

Symposium On The Biological Impacts Of Tropical Climate Warming On Ectotherms

By Jonathan Losos

On July 1, 2013

In All Posts

Quite a line-up! This August in San Juan. Schedule below, and details on their website, as are the abstracts:

DAY I: August 1, 2013

8:30 Ray Huey Opening remarks

9:00 Ariel Lugo Climate change or land cover change? Which is driving some lizards to the lowlands?

9:30 Jennifer Sunday Global patterns of thermal tolerance and range limits in ectotherms

10:00 Barry Sinervo On the risk of extinction of tropical ectotherms: Are they buffered against climate?

10:30 Coffee Break

11:00 Elvira Cuevas Update of climate change in the Caribbean, and projections on soil nutrient cycling and interactions

11:30 Omar Gutierrez Significant diurnal and seasonal variation in soil CO2 efflux is positively related to temperature in a moist subtropical forest in Puerto Rico

12:00 Lauren Buckley Thermal specialization of ecotherms on tropical mountains

12:30 Michael Kearney The thermodynamic niches of tropical ectotherms

1:00 Lunch Break

2:30 Mike Kaspari Life in the boundary zone–the thermal ecology of small cursorial insects

3:00 Patricia Burrowes Climate change efects on Caribbean seasonality and its implications on an ectotherm host-pathogen dynamics

3:30 Carlos Navas Vulnerability of anuran amphibians to climate change: inferring the impact of water availability and temperature

4:00 Ana C. Carnaval Integrating data sets to validate models of biological response to former climate change in the Brazilian Atlantic forest

4:30 Coffee Break

5:00 Mridul Thomas The effects of ocean warming on marine phytoplankton diversity

5:30 Brad Lister Long-term declines in arthropod abundance restructure a rainforest food web

DAY II: August 2, 2013

8:30 Martha M. Muñoz Evolutionary stasis and lability in thermal physiology in a group of tropical lizards

9:00 Luisa Otero Effects of recent climate warming on the reproductive phenology of Puerto Rican Anolis lizards

9:30 Alexander Gunderson Behavioral responses to thermal variation: implications for predicting the biological impacts of climate change

10:00 Michael L. Logan Population level differences in thermal ecology suggest resilience to warming among Honduran Anolis lizards

10:30 Ignacio de la Riva Thermal ecology of Bolivian lizards of the genus Liolaemus: Will climate warming drive them to extinction?

11:00 Mat Vickers Sunshine, on a cloudy day

11:30 Michael Angilletta Symposium highlights

12:00 Leave for Field Trip to El Verde

Hybridization In Puerto Rican Grass Anoles: Another View

By Jonathan Losos

On July 1, 2013

In New Research

Anolis pulchellus with a cool aggressive display. Photo by Manuel Leal.

A few days back, we reported on a recent paper on hybridization between the Puerto Rican grass-bush anoles, A. krugi and A. pulchellus. But what better way to get the backstory than to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth? So, check out co-author Manuel Leal’s description of how the paper came to be over at Chipojolab.