Anole Annals

Dr. Kristin Winchell at the 2018 Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology

Human activity is well recognized as having evolutionary consequences, and studies on the prolific Anolis genus continue to show us just how adaptable these lizards can be. Dr. Kristin Winchell, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, is investigating the relationship between human activity and evolution in Puerto Rican crested anoles, with a current focus on how selection across urban habitats might be driving changes in morphology and behavior among the lizards.

In an elegantly designed study, Winchell and colleagues collected over 120 male crested anoles (Anolis cristatellus) from forests and urban areas across the island. The team then assessed the ability of these anoles to perform a series of tasks representing normal daily activities, such as sprinting and clinging. By comparing anole performance on natural substrates like wood to their performance on more urban substrates such as concrete and metal, the team determined that the lizards consistently performed better on natural substrates, yet decreased their velocity when perches were inclined. Specifically, the crested anoles sprinted at less then half of their maximum speed on painted concrete, up to 32% slower on metal compared to wood bark tracks, and as much as 34% slower when surfaces were steeply inclined.

Winchell and colleagues measured differences in limb length and toe pad morphology among urban-caught and forest-caught anoles.

In addition to performance assessments, detailed scans of toe pad and skeletal morphology were collected and analyzed, allowing Winchell to identify differences in morphological traits underlying any variation in performance. Upon comparison, the pattern was clear: lizards living in cities had significantly longer limbs, more lamellae on their front toe pads, and larger overall rear toe pads. Longer hindlimbs in particular were found to positively influence velocity across substrate types, surely a selective advantage for anoles tasked with sprinting between the amply spaced urban perches. However, the urban phenotype is not without cost, as longer forelimbs were found to negatively influence velocity on more steeply inclined surfaces, as well as increasing the lizard’s likelihood of slipping. As all urban populations measured shared these phenotypic traits, however, the advantage of increased speed seems to be worth the costs.

As rates of urbanization continue to increase, further studies examining the response of taxa adapting to urban environments will be imperative. With Winchell’s plan to explore performance and morphological differences in other anole species living across the urban-forest continuum, it will be exciting to learn how these traits are affected within species originating from other territorial and arboreal microhabitats.

Evolution 2018: Selection on Thermal Plasticity in City Lizards

By Colin Donihue

On August 24, 2018

In All Posts

Cities were hot at this year’s Evolution meeting because they provide valuable petri dishes for asking myriad evolutionary questions. For example, cityscapes tend to create and retain heat–the so-called urban heat island effect–resulting in significantly elevated temperatures in urban areas relative to nearby undeveloped landscapes. Hot cities thus provide scientists an opportunity for asking questions about how plants and animals adapt to tolerate high temperatures. These questions are especially relevant as the built landscape continues to creep into less-developed surroundings and the globe as a whole experiences year after year of record temperatures.

Dr. Shane Campbell-Staton and colleagues used steep thermal differences between cities and nearby forests in four municipalities in Puerto Rico to determine whether, and to what extent, lizards may have adapted to warmer temperatures in the city. First, they found that operative temperature does change: lizards in cities use warmer perches and they operate at higher body temperatures than their forest counterparts. When brought back to the lab, however, those city lizards did not continue to function better at higher temperatures than their forest counterparts.

So what might be underlying this thermal plasticity?

Campbell-Staton and his collaborators then brought lizards back to the U.S., bred them, and raised the offspring in common conditions. Surprisingly, they found that the differences they observed in the wild populations disappeared in the next generation, an indication that this thermal ability is a plastic response to the thermal environment.

This thermal plasticity observation generated another question: Is thermal plasticity the target of natural selection in urban heat islands? To investigate this, Campbell-Staton isolated and analyzed transcriptomes of skeletal muscles in lizards from the hot city and cool(er) forests. Indeed, after the lizards were subjected to controlled heat treatments in the lab, they found a suite of candidate genes that were expressed at different levels between the populations. More genomic wizardry is planned for the very near future.

The work is ongoing and a very exciting paper is coming together. Keep your eyes peeled because it will certainly make a splash. Additionally, if you’re interested in this kind of work, Campbell-Staton has just started a lab at UCLA and is actively recruiting new lab members. Shoot him an email here.

Evolution 2018 : Hurricane-Induced Habitat Destruction Could Mediate the Dewlap Color Polymorphism in Anolis distichus

By Claire Dufour

On August 23, 2018

In All Posts

The anole dewlap is a powerful visual signal to attract sexual partners and repel rivals and predators. The diversity of dewlap color has fascinated researchers for decades, environmental lighting and species competition being among the potential drivers of its evolution. At the Evolution meeting in Montpellier, Winter Beckles, PhD student at the University of Miami, presented his great study on the bark anole. Anolis distichus invaded Miami through multiple introductions events. Intriguingly, these little lizards occupy a range of habitats and present polymorphisms in their dewlap color within populations.

For his PhD, Winter and his colleagues measured the reflectance spectrum of the habitat and of the dewlap of 20 to 25 males per population. They found a strong positive correlation between the relative abundance of habitat UV light and the UV light reflected by the dewlaps. But that was before Hurricane Irma hit Miami in September 2017. And what a destruction it was: the trees, the canopy, the plants and by consequence the habitat lighting, were affected by this catastrophic event.

Despite the obvious negative consequences of the hurricane, this event gave a great opportunity to test the effect of extreme habitat change in the variability of dewlap color in the bark anole. Thus, after Irma, Winter and his colleagues immediately returned to each field site to collect reflectance data of the habitats and dewlaps: Irma altered the light profiles across sites and the correlation between dewlap and ambient light disappeared. In order to track how the relationship between dewlap color and habitat lighting develops over time, Winter plans to collect data in 2018: maybe the correlation will be back. Looking forward to seeing the paper.

Evolution 2018: the Origin of Species, Anolis Style

By Pavitra Muralidhar

On August 21, 2018

In All Posts

Two of the authors (Colin Donihue and Raphaël Scherrer) with their poster at Evolution 2018

How do new species form? At ESEB 2018, Colin Donihue uses Anolis lizards to answer this fundamental question in evolutionary biology.

Anoles are known for their adaptive radiation in the Carribean and the corresponding diversification into distinct “ecomorph” categories. Each ecomorph is associated with distinct morphologies and behaviors that allow it to live easily in a different habitat. This pattern is repeated across the Greater Antillean islands, but what we see is the end result of an adaptive radiation – each ecomorph corresponds to a separate species.

Donihue and his co-authors embarked on an ambitious project to capture the beginning of an adaptive radiation. To do so, they turned to the ubiquitous brown anole, Anolis sagrei. As Anolis sagrei is found across the Bahamas in a variety of different habitats, you might expect to see them adapting to those different habitats through changes in morphology; in other words, looking at the early adaptation of Anolis sagrei populations in different habitats is a natural experiment reflecting the early stages of ecomorph development. And since Anolis sagrei is on islands across the Bahamas, there isn’t just one experiment, but several replicated ones. Donihue et al. could therefore also question the role of contingency vs deterministic evolution though their study.

The authors captured 20 individuals from coastal scrub, mangrove, and primary coppice forest habitat across 11 islands in the Bahamas, and measured a suite of morphological traits for all individuals; these traits include the “usual culprits” of ecomorph differentiation, such as forelimb length, hindlimb length, and lamella count. This effort resulted in an enormous data set that the authors could use to test whether brown anoles had adapted to the different habitats across all the islands.

So are the Bahamian brown anoles adapting along early ecomorph lines? Well…sort of. On any given island, lizards living in different habitats have different morphological characteristics. But, looking across islands, Donihue et al. observe different patterns of morphological specialization on each island. This suggests that contingency, in this case represented by the island of origin, is playing a large role in how the lizards adapt to the three different habitats.

In an interesting twist to the project, Donihue et al. used supervised machine learning to test whether lizards could be assigned to the correct habitat categories based on morphology. They found that this algorithm could assign lizards to their habitat correctly based on the input of their morphological measurements across islands. This result implies that determinism is playing a role in the specialization of these brown anoles, but may only be detectable when looking at a lizard’s holistic phenotype rather than any individual trait measurement. Looking forward to seeing the paper on these results!

A Case of Cryptic Back-Introduction

By Jessica Pita Aquino

On August 21, 2018

In New Research

Figure 1. Native and non-native ranges of Anolis sagrei. Map from Kolbe et al. (2017).In this study, Kolbe and collaborators (2017) surveyed A. sagrei populations across Cayman Brac. First, they looked for red-dewlapped lizards to determine whether invasive A. sagrei from Grand Cayman have invaded Cayman Brac. Second, they collected brown anole lizards on Grand Cayman and Little Cayman to determine the source of red-dewlapped A. sagrei. For all lizards captured, they quantified dewlap phenotypes (i.e., reflectance spectra) using spectrophotometric methods, measured structural habitat use (i.e., perch height and diameter) and body size (i.e., snout-vent length (SVL) and mass), and genotyped ten nuclear microsatellite loci. For lizards with intermediate multilocus genotypes or with a genotype that did not match their island, they sequenced mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes (ND2) to test for nuclear-mitochondrial mismatches. Genomic data was combined with previously published microsatellite genotypes (Kolbe et al. 2008) and mtDNA (ND2) sequences for the Cayman Islands (Kolbe et al. 2004, 2007). With these data, they evaluated whether invasive A. sagrei from Grand Cayman have been introduced to native populations on Cayman Brac, and if so, whether invasive lizards have interbred with native lizards.

Under current trends of globalization, human activities impact the distribution of species by facilitating dispersal of propagules. Human-mediated dispersal prevents geographic distance from being a barrier to the introduction and movement of many species. These long-distance colonization events can gather evolutionary distinct lineages that might have been separated for millions of years (e.g., Kolbe et al. 2004). Moreover, dispersal events can potentially reintroduce individuals from an invasive population back into their native range; either back into their original source population or to any part of their native range. This previously undocumented dimension of biological invasion was termed cryptic back-introduction by Guo (2005).

Anolis sagrei is an excellent colonist, judging by its geographical distribution. This species has reached many islands and mainland areas in the Caribbean by overwater dispersal (Williams 1969). About 2.5 million years ago, A. sagrei naturally colonized Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. These populations subsequently differentiated into the yellow-dewlapped endemic subspecies A. sagrei luteosignifer on Cayman Brac and the red-dewlapped A. s. sagrei on Little Cayman (Schwartz and Henderson 1991); the dewlap (i.e., an extendible flap of skin attached to the throat) is used for mate attraction, male-male and interspecific competition, and predator deterrence (Losos 2009). However, this species failed to naturally colonize the third of the Cayman Islands, Grand Cayman. In the early 1980s, through human-mediated dispersal, a red-dewlapped form of A. sagrei established on Grand Cayman. These populations resulted from the introduction of genetically admixed lizards from non-native populations in south Florida (Minton and Minton 1984; Kolbe et al. 2004, 2008; Figure 1). Since then, inter-island supply shipments by air and sea within the Caymans could have transported invasive and native brown anole lizards among the three islands. Kolbe et al. (2017) explored whether cryptic back-introduction is occurring in brown anole (A. sagrei) lizards and the implications of this type of invasion for native populations.

Figure 2. Results of PCA for dewlap reflectance (Kolbe et al. 2017).

Kolbe et al. (2017) found no differences among islands in structural habitat use. They conducted a principal component analysis (PCA) for dewlap reflectance data using the average wavelength of each lizard. PCA results show that there is strong differentiation in dewlap reflectance between yellow-dewlapped lizards on Cayman Brac and the red-dewlapped lizards on Little Cayman and Grand Cayman (Figure 2), which supports their field observations of red-dewlapped lizards occurring on Cayman Brac (Figure 3B). This suggests the introduction of brown anole lizards to Cayman Brac from either of the two other Cayman Islands.

Figure 3. Examples of Anolis sagrei dewlaps from the Cayman Islands (Kolbe et al. 2017).

Furthermore, this study reports strong population-genetic structure among the three Cayman Islands and evidence for non-equilibrium. They identified intermediate multilocus genotypes between Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac (Figure 4). Also, the authors found an intermediate microsatellite genotype in one individual from Cayman Brac. This lizard had a red dewlap and a mtDNA haplotype from Grand Cayman. This mismatch among genetic and phenotypic data suggests that A. sagrei lizards (with different colored dewlaps) from Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac are interbreeding.

Figure 4. Results of a PCoA using multilocus genotypes from ten microsatellite loci (Kolbe et al. 2017).

This study reports the first evidence of cryptic back-introduction; however the frequency with which this phenomenon occurs is still unknown. By studying cryptic back-introductions we can eventually understand how lineages change though a brief period of isolation from its native range and determine if these are incompatible when brought together again. Likewise, future studies should address how phenotypic variation affects ecological interactions with native species and its consequences.

Article:

Kolbe, J. J., J. E. Wegener, Y. E. Stuart, U. Milstead, K. E. Boronow, A. S. Harrison, and J. B. Losos. 2017. An Incipient Invasion of Brown Anole Lizards (Anolis sagrei) Into Their Own Native Range in the Cayman Islands: A Case of Cryptic Back-introduction. Biological Invasions 19:1989–1998.

Cited Literature:

Guo, Q. 2005. Possible cryptic invasion through “back introduction”?

Kolbe, J. J., R. E. Glor, L. R. Schettino, A. C. Lara, A. Larson, and J. B. Losos. 2004. Genetic variation increases during biological invasion by a Cuban lizard. Nature 431:177–181.

Kolbe, J. J., A. Larson, and J. B. Losos. 2007. Differential admixture shapes morphological variation among invasive populations of the lizard Anolis sagrei. Molecular Ecology 16:1579–1591.

Kolbe, J. J., A. Larson, J. B. Losos, and K. de Queiroz. 2008. Admixture determines genetic diversity and population differentiation in the biological invasion of a lizard species. Biology letters 4:434–437.

Losos, J. B. 2009. Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree: Ecology and Adaptive Radiation of anoles. University of California Press.

Minton SA, Minton MR (1984) Anolis sagrei (brown anole). Herpetol Rev 15:77

Schwartz A, Henderson RW (1991) Amphibians and reptiles of the West Indies: descriptions, distributions, and natural history. University of Florida Press, Gainesville

Williams, E. E. 1969. The ecology of colonization as seen in the zoogeography of anoline lizards on small islands.

ESA 2018: The Consequences of Malarial Infection on the Puerto Rican Yellow-Chinned Anole in Post-Hurricane Conditions

By Johann D. Crespo

On August 19, 2018

In New Research, Research Methods

Reduced host fitness and impaired immune functions are some of the most well-known consequences of parasitic infections. However, some parasites play important ecological roles by influencing their host’s populations and community composition. In eastern Caribbean islands, the malaria parasite Plasmodium azurophilum has been suggested to mediate competition and determine distribution patterns on some anole species. In Puerto Rico, P. azurophilum is known to infect at least five Anolis species – its main host being the yellow-chinned anole (Anolis gundlachi).

David Clark, a master’s student at the University of Puerto Rico – Río Piedras Campus, along with his research mentor (Dr. Miguel A. Acevedo), assessed the negative ecological consequences of P. azurophilum infection on A. gundlachi within the Luquillo Experimental Forest in eastern Puerto Rico. They quantified this by measuring body condition, dewlap size and site fidelity, all of which were exclusively measured in male anoles, as these are the most often infected by P. azurophilum. Moreover, to determine if infected individuals perform worse after a major disturbance event, the body condition was measured again after Hurricane Maria. They used the residual index for body condition, which is calculated using the regression of the log weight and log size. Dewlap size was measured by taking photos of anoles with their dewlaps extended and calculating the area in ImageJ. To diagnose the presence of P. azurophilum infection, blood samples were collected and then examined using a light microscope under oil immersion. Finally, to examine movement patterns and quantify the site fidelity of male individuals, they conducted a mark-resight study within the forest. For statistical analysis they performed linear regression for body condition and dewlap area, and log-linear regression for distance moved.

Tagged male Anolis gundlachi (a) and Plasmodium under oil immersion (b, c & d) (Image by David Clark)

David and Miguel found that P. azurophilum infection did not influence the site fidelity of A. gundlachi males, and that infected individuals tend to exhibit slightly larger dewlaps. The presence of this malaria parasite did not seem to negatively influence body condition before Hurricane Maria. However, their results show that after this major disturbance, body condition was better for infected anoles, suggesting that these individuals are more tolerant to disturbance conditions than the uninfected ones. All in all, no evidence was found to suggest that P. azurophilum infection has negative consequences on the ecological factors assessed here on A. gundlachi. David and his team are currently performing experimental competition trials to assess intraspecific interactions between infected and uninfected yellow-chinned anoles, as well as immunological studies to determine immune responses to infection. Future studies could possibly bring light on the ecological consequences of interspecific interactions between Puerto Rican anoles infected with malaria parasites.

The Luquillo Experimental Forest after Hurricane Maria (Image by Miguel A. Acevedo)

Interspecific Differences in Genetic Divergence among Populations of Anolis Lizards in Cuba

By Masakado Kawata

On August 17, 2018

In New Research

Anolis allisoni. Photo by Masakado Kawata

Cuba is a fascinating country and the largest island in the Caribbean. Cuba has the highest diversity of Anolis lizards, including more than 60 species (see my Instagram page for photos of Cuban anoles and landscapes). Antonio Cádiz, Luis M. Díaz (National Museum of Natural History of Cuba) and a member of my lab published a paper comparing genetic divergence of Anolis species within Cuba (Cádiz et al. 2018, Zoological Letters, 4:21). The study was conducted when Tony was a PhD student at Tohoku University and lecturer at Havana University.

We constructed a phylogeny using nuclear and mitochondrial genes of 303 individuals from 33 Cuban Anolis species (Fig.2) . The phylogeny presented in this study follows the most comprehensive sampling of Cuban Anolis species to date. We added five species which had not been sequenced previously. We also estimated another phylogeny using mitochondrial genes of 51 Cuban and 47 non-Cuban Anolis species for estimated relative species ages (Fig.S3).

Map of Cuba showing our sampling locations.

Then, we tried to estimate factors affecting interspecific (or interclade) differences in genetic divergence among populations of Cuban Anolis species. We considered species age, environmental heterogeneity within species ranges, and ecomorph type as putative factors. For this purpose, we examined genetic divergence within species by using 177 populations of 26 species.The sampling locations of these species were selected for the best feasible coverage of known geographic ranges of each species. Phylogenetic Generalized Least Squares (PGLS) analyses showed that species age was positively correlated with species’ average genetic divergence among populations.

Previous studies have indicated deep interpopulation genetic divergence found in several Anolis species. Our results showed that relavie differences in genetic divergence was largely affected by species age and geographic distances within species (Fig. 3). This indicates that older species could have more divergent populations within species.

Phylogeny of Cuban anoles.

Cádiz, A., N. Nagata, L. Díaz, Y. Suzuki-Ohno, L.Echenique-Díaz, H. Akashi, T. Makino and M. Kawata. (2018) Factors affecting interspecific differences in genetic divergence among populations of Anolis lizards in Cuba. Zoological Letters 4:21 [Open Access] https://doi.org/10.1186/s40851-018-0107-x

ESA 2018: Yellow-Chinned Anole Population Dynamics across Two Disturbance Events

By David Clark

On August 16, 2018

In All Posts

Anolis gundlachi, Photo taken by Johann Crespo Zapata

Disturbance events can be important drivers of population dynamics for many different species. Puerto Rico, an island in the Caribbean, experienced two major disturbances over the course of a few years – a drought in 2015 and a hurricane in 2017 – that caused stress to the herpetofauna living in the region. The yellow-chinned anole, Anolis gundlachi, is particularly susceptible to disturbance events because it is a thermoconformer and vulnerable to dehydration. Johann Crespo-Zapata and his team wanted to track the population of yellow-chinned anoles in the tropical mountain forest of Sierra de Cayey during and after these disturbance events to determine how the population would change.

Johann and his collaborators counted A. gundlachi along four 30-meter transects to determine population size. The crew split its groups into adults (> 45 snout to vent length, SVL), large juveniles (20-45 SVL) and juveniles (<20 SVL). The team also collected precipitation levels using a local weather station to determine if each month had less rain than average, which is called a rain deficit. Following the population subsets over the last four years allowed Johann to understand how the population responded to hydric stress. He recorded a decrease in juvenile abundance as rain deficit increased (r = -0.352, p < 0.0482, n = 32), which suggests a decrease in recruitment. There was no overall trend for large juveniles in response to the drought. Adults displayed a similar pattern to that of juveniles, as they experienced a decrease in abundance with increased deficit. After a time lag, adults experienced an increase in abundance when the drought lifted (r = 0.4469, p <0.0024, n = 44) that could be attributed to increased mortality during the drought events.

Sierra de Cayey forest after Hurricane Maria, photo taken by Johann Crespo Zapata

Following this study period, hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, causing structural changes to the forest canopy and decreases in humidity. Immediately following the hurricane, Johann saw the anole abundance decrease to its lowest point. Johann plans to continue to follow this population for the foreseeable future to observe population dynamics in A. gundlachi populations following major hurricane disturbances. Understanding the population dynamics of these anoles is critical to comprehending how this species and others like it will cope with increased disturbance events that will become more frequent according to current climate change projections.

Blog for Anole Annals at Evolution 2018!

By Kristin Winchell

On August 15, 2018

In All Posts

With Evolution 2018 kicking off this Saturday in Montpellier, we are putting out a last minute call for bloggers to help us cover the 9 anole talks/posters! Will you be attending? Want to contribute to the blog? Send me a message at kmwinchell@wustl.edu! We are happy to have you join the team whether or not you have blogged for us before!

For those of you following along at home, here’s a sneak peek of the action:

Kicking off the anole posters during the first poster session on Sunday will be Winter Beckles (“Habitat partitioning and signal divergence among non-native bark anoles in South Florida”), Colin Donihue (“How does an adaptive radiation begin? Contingency and determinism in Anolis sagrei ecological specialization”), and Timothy Thurman (“Phenotypic change in response to introduced predators and competitors: a field experiment with Anolis lizards”).

Monday starts off bright and early with a talk by Guin Wogan (“Replicated landscape level epigenomics and genomics of two Greater Antillean trunk-ground Anolis lizards”), followed by an afternoon talk by Carlos Infante (“Regulatory evolution, development, and convergence among Anolis lizards”). There is also a talk slated for Monday afternoon by Tony Gamble on “Sex chromosome evolution in lizards and snakes,” which I hear may feature some anoles, but will focus more generally on squamates.

All the rest of the anole action happens on Tuesday, starting with a talk by Shane Campbell-Staton (“Selection on thermal plasticity facilitates adaptation of city lizards to urban heat islands”), and ending with 3 posters during the evening poster session by Claire Dufour (“Evolution of the agonistic behavior as a first response to the recent interspecific competition between the invasive species –Anolis cristatellus– and the native–Anolis oculatus– in Dominica”), Kristin Winchell (“Urban Evolution Mid-Stride: Morphology and Performance of Urban Lizards”), and Yann Bourgeois (“Population genomics of green anole (Anolis carolinensis) reveals evolutionary forces shaping diversity in a reptile”).

Check back during the meeting as we rev up our blogging machine to cover all of this exciting new research! Also, make sure to follow along on Twitter by following Anole Annals (@AnoleAnnals) and the Evolution 2018 hashtag (#Evol2018)!

Perch Use by Anolis polylepis Peters, 1874 (Polychrotidae) in a Tropical Humid Forest at the Piro Biological Station, Costa Rica

By Javier Cortes Suarez

On August 14, 2018

In Natural History Observations, New Research, Notes from the Field, Research Methods

Morazán Fernández, F., Gutiérrez Sanabria D. R., Coello-Toro H. L., Arévalo-Huezo, E. Ioli, A. G., Díaz Gutiérrez, N., Guerra, L. F, Burbano, D., Guevara, C., Lobos, L., Rico-Urones, A., Cortés-Suárez, J. E, Jiménez, R., Reinke, H., Narváez, V., Aranda, J.M. 2013. Relación entre la fauna silvestre y las plantaciones de palma africana (elaeis guineensis) y su efecto en la producción de pequeños y medianos productores en la península de osa, Costa Rica. Instituto Internacional de Conservación y Manejo de Vida Silvestre, Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica. Pp 104.

This image was taken as part of the integrated course developed by the XXIII promotion of the Masters in Conservation and Wildlife Management of the National University of Costa Rica.

Individuals of a species use habitats on different ways for refuge, feeding, reproduction, or perching. We studied the variation on perch use between sex and age classes of Anolis polylepis at the Piro Biological Station, Costa Rica. Our results point to a similar perch use pattern between sex, but different between age classes, considering only the lowest and
highest perches. Adult females and males use herbaceous and shrubby vegetation and avoid leaf litter. Juveniles use herbaceous vegetation and leaf litter, but avoid shrubby vegetation. We suggest that adult males use higher perches to defend territory.
Conversely, juveniles use lower perches to avoid predators and foraging. Adult females use middle and high perches. This result is in contrast with previous studies on this species.

Cortés-Suárez, J. E. and N. Díaz-Gutiérrez. 2013. Perch use by Anolis polylepis Peters, 1874 (Polychrotidae) in a tropical humid forest at the Piro Biological Station, Costa Rica. Herpetology Notes 6: 219–222.