David Polly, vertebrate paleontologist extraordinaire, keeps an eye out for living organisms as well, but turns out his specialty really is the dead ones. Here’s the story: “Ironically I was trying to photograph a live anole on the University of Florida campus [in Gainesville] who was annoyingly reclusive while trying to avoid a swarm of ants. The Anolis escaped so I turned attention to the ants, who turned out to be engaged in Anolis reanimation.”
Check the new episode of the series “Chris & Z’Andy, the 2 anoles in Dominica ” published in PeerJ (Dufour, Herrel & Losos 2018)!
See also episode 1
Recently, colleagues and I from Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic published a paper (Holáňová Zahradníčková et al. 2018) in Acta Societatis Zoologicae Bohemicae announcing the discovery of a new dimorphic Anolis population/species from Cuba.
Finding “Chamaeleolis” at their typical habitat at Gran Piedra, Cuba.
During my last trip to Cuba in 2012, I had the luck to find a male of unusual Anolis (“chamaeleolis group“) at Gran Piedra mountain, Santiago de Cuba province. At first glimpse, I knew it is something new—it had a red dewlap! All of to the “Chamaeleolis“ described thus far didn’t have that. By distribution region, it had to be Anolis porcus, but it looked different. Some time later, by coincidence I received some Cuban anoles with locality from Russian private breeders and what a surprise: there were false chameleons with red dewlaps! So, we could start our research on these unique animals.
Can you see it? Photo by Veronika Zahradníčková
In comparison with other species of the “chamaeleolis group,“ animals from this population display surprising dichromatism in dewlaps. Males have shiny red dewlaps, while females have whitish dewlaps.
Lateral view of heads and dewlaps in males and females of five examined Anolis species/populations of the “chamaeleolis” group
We compared this “new anole“ with other Anolis species of the “chamaeleolis group“ (A. barbatus, A. chamaeleonides, A. guamuhaya and A. porcus) through morphology, mtDNA, visual modelling and spectrophotometry. Our results showed expected distinctness of this dichromatic population.
Amazing dorsal crest of Anolis sp. male. Photo by Veronika Zahradníčková
Veronika Zahradníčková with adult male of Anolis sp. at Gran Piedra, Cuba
Why did we not describe it? In the original description of A. porcus Cope, 1864 there is no information about dewlap coloration nor about the exact type locality. We would need to compare our material with the A. porcus holotype (ANSP 8133 in Philadelphia). We wanted to avoid taxonomic discussions concerning species identity of these specimens until a thorough revision of A. porcus sensu lato including properly localized materials can be completed. We would prefer to cooperate with Cuban herpetologists in this.
And so now it is waiting for description and scientific name. Who will be the first?
It has come to our attention that today’s deadline for submissions to the Anolis Newsletter VII is landing squarely during many contributor’s field research and conference seasons, and so we have taken the decision to extend the submission deadline by 1 month.
The new deadline will be: 31st August 2018.
We hope those of you there were unable to meet today’s deadline are now able to put together a submission in time for the next! This is lining up to be the best newsletter yet. Contributions to the newsletter can take many forms, for example:
– Manuscript-like reports.
More than anything, this is an opportunity to let the anole community know what you’re up to. At the same time, this is not something to stress over. These are newsletter reports, informal non-publications. Don’t sweat the details! And for those of you who presented at the symposium, it’s just a matter of writing down what you said!
You can find all of the formatting details for newsletter submissions here:
https://www.anoleannals.org/2018/04/25/anolis-newsletter-vii-a-call-for-contributions/
And please send all submissions directly to:
Best wishes
The AN VII Editorial Team
2018 Anolis Symposium team photo in Miami FL!
AA reader Diane Hickey Davis asks: Are there any differences, genetic or otherwise, between the Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) found wild in Louisiana, Alabama, Florida panhandle, Tampa region, and those sold by Carolina Biological supply or PetSmart?
I have an observation of the Green Anole (Anolis carolinensis) from the southern Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. A population of these anoles lives on a south facing rock outcrop at the top of the plateau. In November 2017, I saw an individual with what appeared to have multiple hair-like features on its head. I first located this population in March 2017. Of the individuals I photographed in March 2017, neither showed evidence of these hair like features. I have been unable to locate any individuals from this population in two trips to the site in 2018.
Any thoughts on what this hair-like feature might be? Has anyone else observed this in Anolis carolinensis or any other anole species?
Dear anolologists,
The 31st July deadline for submissions to the Anolis newsletter is fast approaching, and we want to remind everyone that this is an open submission for all contributions!
See this previous post for all information you need on the type of contributions we are looking for!
We particularly encourage all of those anolologists who presented research at the 2018 Anolis Symposium to contribute brief synopses of their talks or posters.
Best wishes
The AN Editorial Team
Submit contributions to: anolis2018@gmail.com
Formatting instructions: http://www.jameststroud.com/uploads/2/6/1/3/26134722/anvii_formatting_instructions.pdf
A brown anole emerging from the egg.
There is much talk these days about how human land use (e.g. urbanization) impacts wildlife. Although anoles have often taken center stage in this discussion (Winchell et al. 2016; Tyler et al. 2016; Chejanovski et al. 2017; Lapiedra et al. 2017; Winchell et al. 2018), most of this work has focused on measuring phenotypes of adult males. Very little work has been done to understand how massive habitat alteration impacts early life stages even though we know that these stages are extremely sensitive to environmental disturbance and have the potential to impact population dynamics (Carlo et al 2018). Embryos are particularly sensitive to changes in the environment because they lack the ability to respond to unfavorable conditions by adjusting their behavior (i.e., they can’t run away). Since the 1980’s, we’ve known that egg mortality can have massive effects on population densities and even determine how these densities cycle from year to year (Andrews 1982; Andrews 1988; Chalcraft and Andrews 1999). Still, comparatively little attention is given to embryo development and egg survival when considering how habitat alteration impacts species.
In a newly published paper (Hall & Warner 2018), we sought to understand how extreme ground temperatures in cities and suburbs (i.e., the urban heat island effect) influence patterns of embryo development. Due to a lack of canopy cover (i.e., trees) and an abundance of heat-absorbing surfaces (e.g., concrete), cities and suburbs tend to be much warmer than adjacent forested areas, and this means nest temperatures are higher in urban and suburban areas compared to adjacent forested sites (Tiatragul et al. 2017). Warm temperatures often have positive effects on embryo development; however, extremely warm temperatures can cause mortality and even slow developmental rates (Sanger et al. 2018).
Figure 1. An overview of our experimental design to understand how urban incubation regimes impact embryo development and survival. Eggs from both forest and city populations were factorially distributed into forest and city incubation treatments. At approximately a quarter of the way through development, some eggs were exposed to a spike in temperature measured from the field (either 39 or 43 °C peak). Eggs completed development at their assigned incubation profile (city vs. forest) and hatchling growth and survival were monitored in the lab for three months.
While performing population research of Anolis (Norops) bicaorum at Kanahau Utila Research & Conservation Facility, we stumbled upon two males in close proximity initiating a territorial dispute. With the intention of documenting this behavior, we began to record the interaction.
In all honesty, the confrontation was a little shorter than any of us expected… It may well be one of my funniest fieldwork memories to date (despite watching it on repeat, I still can’t help but chuckle at this anole’s misfortune!) . To detail, upon the first exchange of dewlap extensions, the responding male slipped and fell clumsily from the trunk; meanwhile, his contender (who was in the process of displaying) looked on, apparently baffled at the sudden disappearance of his rival.
It appears the falling males mistake arose owing to a combination of two factors. The simple explanation is that this male lost his footing on the steep vertical trunk (which formed the battleground on this occasion), but indeed it’s rare to see an anole make such an error of judgement; the lamellae on their feet afford them excellent grip on many substrates. The second explanation owes to the fact males are completely intolerant of one another. We noted that when engaging in territorial disputes, males of A. bicaorum become entirely absorbed in their confrontation, possessed by their territorial natures and relentless in their efforts to dissuade and expel contenders from their patch. Often, competing individuals become so preoccupied that hey no longer perceive apparent dangers (e.g., the closely observing biologists). Perhaps the haphazard approach of males in territorial engagement leaves them prone to the occasional miscalculation.
If you are curious to learn more about Anolis (Norops) bicaorum (a threatened species endemic to Isla de Utila, Honduras), the most recent research by Brown et al. (2017) at Kanahau URCF resulted in published records on their geographic distribution, natural history, ecology and interactions with sympatric anoles.
From the Herping in Cuba Facebook page (with permission).
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