In my last post, I discussed my use of a new polymer clay, 3P QuickCureClay, in sculpting anoles. Several commenters were interested in learning more about this medium and its potential for making models to assess predator marks.
I’ve now created a demonstration video of the clay which displays its unique properties and versatility (plus, newly finished anole sculptures make an appearance!):
Ventral and dorsal view of polydactyl anole, click to enlarge.
As Rich Glor mentioned recently, we are in the second year of an experimental hybrid cross between two bark anole species. Although we are still early in this year’s experiment, we have had about 50 eggs hatch and, surprisingly, two have had malformed forelimb digits. The first was missing two toes on one of its forelimbs and died a few days after hatching. The second (pictured above) hatched with six toes, but has been otherwise healthy. Each of these toes has an intact claw, and at least one has lamellae. The fourth digit (from closest to the body counting outwards) seems to lack the (expected) scansor and is permanently bent upwards.
Mats Olsson and colleagues (2004) found malformations in the limbs and jaws and kinked backbones in crosses between populations of Lacerta agilis. Of the over 800 hatchlings in last year’s F1 experiment, we found a few animals with malformed spines, but not a single animal with digit or jaw issues. It’s particularly interesting (to me at least) that these issues have manifested in the backcross generation, an issue I hope to investigate further as more animals hatch.
Polydactyly has been reported in captive-bred crested geckos (Correlophus ciliatus), but I couldn’t find anything about anoles. Has anyone else seen something similar in anoles? If so, please let us know in the comments.
Anole masks. Note: The dewlaps looked a lot pinker under natural light!
Organisms that colonize a new landmass are often faced with strange environments and selection pressures. Biologists are no exception. Having quasi-recently emigrated to England, I can tell you that, from a North American perspective, the UK can be pretty strange. One of the novelties, along with saying ‘Ta’ and not heating buildings, is the ‘fancy dress’ party. If you’re American or Canadian, then ‘fancy dress’ probably conjures images of black tie, tails and sherry (Downton Abbey anyone?). But no. ‘Fancy Dress’ is when otherwise regular people don ridiculous costumes and drink a lot (wait, that does sound like Downton Abbey). The reasons behind this custom (the dressing up, not the drinking) are unknown to me. Maybe it’s because there’s no Halloween and thus no annual outlet for looking like an idiot?
Anyway, the point is that this year, our departmental party’s theme was Noah’s Ark. Of course, this left us with only one option. If the world’s going to flood, then we’d better be sure there’s a pair of anoles on board. After all, think of the opportunity for radiation when the waters recede. All it took was a little duct tape, papier-mâché, paint, an artistic spouse and voila, Anolis masks! Of course, I can’t believe that I’m the only one who has ever attempted an anole costume – anyone else have any pics to share of their efforts?
Ok, who recognizes this one? And does it look it’s a member of any of the ecomorph categories? You make the call!
Albino A. capito from http://www.wildherps.com/images/herps/standard/10081124PD.jpg
A very rare picture of an albino anole. I searched on a lot of websites, but found no information. I suppose that albinos are quickly eaten. Unlike nocturnal reptiles for which light color is not an important problem, for anoles that are heliophilic, the light color must be a problem.
In general, albino specimens have a relatively short life expectancy (the photo shows a just hatched individual)–either they are eaten because they are too much visible by the predators, or they couldn’t eat because they are too visible by the prey. The percentage of albinos relative to normal specimens is one case per 100,000, although this probably varies by species.
Back to anoles, unlike nocturnal reptiles for which light color is not an important problem, for our anoles which use a lot the light (for thermoregulation, to show off their bright colors, so that their dominance displays can be seen), being albino may be a huge problem.
One option might be to copy what is done when keeping albino alligators in zoos. Some of these zoos keep these crocodilians in total darkness! But anoles can’t see very well in the dark. The keeping of albino anoles does not really seem possible.
If anybody has an article, I’m interested.
Photos by Gabe Gartner and Kurt Schwenk.
This is a little far afield for anole aficionados, but recent years have seen a revolution in our picture of lizard (including snake) phylogeny. Traditionally, based on morphological analysis, lizards were thought to split into two groups, the iguanians (including anoles, other iguanids, agamids, and chameleons) and scleroglossans (everything else, including snakes). However, starting with a paper by Townsend et al. in 2004, a different picture emerged in which iguanians were nested high in lizard phylogeny, closely related to anguimorphs (such as alligator lizards, gila monsters, and monitors) and snakes. A series of subsequent studies came to essentially the same conclusion, most recently the output of the “Deep Scaly” NSF Tree of Life project which sequenced DNA from 44 genes.
Two views of lizard phylogeny. From Losos et al. (2012)
I think that most of the field had come to accept that the molecular tree was correct. But along comes a paper by the morphology team of Deep Scaly, a remarkable analysis in which 194 species were all micro-CT scanned and examined in others ways, leading to a data set of more than 600 morphological characters, 247 never previously used in phylogenetic studies. Analyzed with state-of-the-art methods, the results resoundingly support the original morphological tree and give absolutely no morphological support for the new molecular tree. The authors do an excellent job in not being strident in insisting that the morphological tree is correct, but just highlighting how very unusual morphological evolution must have been if the molecular tree is correct. Moreover, the authors note that based on analyses including the molecular data, the “Archaeopteryx” of squamates, Huehuecuetzpalli mixtecus, is placed high in the phylogeny, rather than in the basal position where morphology has long placed it. If, indeed, the molecules are right, what does that say about our ability to ever reliably place fossil species in a phylogeny?
Either the morphological or the molecular tree is incorrect, and either molecular or morphological data have been evolving in a way for which there is no good explanation. This is truly a conundrum, which was the point of a perspective piece just published by David Hillis, Harry Greene, and me. We don’t have any answers, but thought it was an interesting enough question worthy of further attention.
You thought I was kidding about the Roatan allisoni doing their best grass anole imitation? See how many you find in this photo. There are at least five, but maybe I missed some.
Anole Annals correspondent and skink biologist Matt Brandley recently sent me a padded envelope. When I pulled out its contents, above, I was bummed–crushed in transited. But I opened the bag and laid out the pieces.
Not crushed! Just disassembled.
The end result, perched on my computer monitor:
Note the purple dewlap, like some Anolis carolinensis from Hawaii.
Here’s the info from the company. Can anyone translate? There’s a whole zoo of different animals in their product line, but no other anoles.
During a field survey in Muelas (21-08-2011; 21:07), buffer zone of the Santa Fe National Park in central Panama, an A. lionotus was captured in its sleeping posture on the river bank. Interestingly, they seem to “mimic” the dead tree branch, but being cryptic at night does not make much sense to me; even if the predator is capable of night vision, being perched on a tree without leaves does not seem to be an advantage.
Anolis lionotus
Earlier this year, we mentioned a paper by Juli Wade reviewing research on the green anole, which has become a model organism for integrative studies of reproductive behavior in vertebrates. One example of such research is a paper recently published in her laboratory by Cohen and Wade in which levels of testosterone were experimentally manipulated to see the effect of this hormone on gene expression in different regions of the brain. The abstract gives the details better than I could:
“Aromatase and 5alpha-reductase (5-alpha-R) catalyze the synthesis of testosterone (T) metabolites: estradiol and 5-alpha-dihydrotestosterone, respectively. These enzymes are important in controlling sexual behaviors in male and female vertebrates. To investigate factors contributing to their regulation in reptiles, male and female green anole lizards were gonadectomized during the breeding and non-breeding seasons and treated with a T-filled or blank capsule. In situ hybridization was used to examine main effects of and interactions among sex, season, and T on expression of aromatase and one isozyme of 5-alpha-R (5-alpha-R2) in three brain regions that control reproductive behaviors: the preoptic area, ventromedial nucleus of the amygdala and ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH). Patterns of mRNA generally paralleled previous evaluations of intact animals. Although no main effects of T were detected, interactions were present in the VMH. Specifically, the density of 5-alpha-R2 expressing cells was greater in T-treated than control females in this region, regardless of season. Among breeding males, blank-treated males had a denser population of 5-alpha-R2 positive cells than T-treated males. Overall, T appears to have less of a role in the regulation of these enzymes than in other vertebrate groups, which is consistent with the primary role of T (rather than its metabolites) in regulation of reproductive behaviors in lizards. However, further investigation of protein and enzyme activity levels are needed before specific conclusions can be drawn.”
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