Direct from our man in the field at the Montgomery Botanical Center in Coral Gables, FL; Chris Thawley (@cjbthawley), a postdoc in the Kolbe Lab at URI, recently filmed this dramatic battle between two male Hispaniolan bark anoles (A. distichus).
Tulane University. Photo by Sally Asher.
Hello, Anolis community! I wanted to give a brief heads up that I will be starting a faculty position in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University this fall. If you or someone you know is interested in a graduate or postdoc position studying physiological ecology and evolution in anoles or other reptiles while living in the great city of New Orleans, let me know. You can find out more information about my work here. Thanks!
The Anolis Newsletters have a long and hallowed history of compiling information on what is happening in anole research and the anole community. The “first” newsletter, put together by anole pioneer Ernest Williams in 1972, was borne from an annual report to the National Science Foundation (NSF). Since then, the newsletters have flourished into an informal and exciting forum for the presentation of data and discussion of theory relevant to anoles. The newsletters serve three general functions: to allow investigators to inform others of their current and future research; to provide an outlet for speculation and theoretical musings perhaps inappropriate for publication in more formal venues; and to given an opportunity to present data and ideas that otherwise might never be distributed.
Since AN IV (1991), the newsletters have been produced in conjunction with Anolis symposia. Now that our recent symposium (#5) was completed in Miami last month, it’s time to produce a newsletter.
For that reason, we’re writing to ask you to send in a contribution, telling the community what you’re doing. As you’ll see if you browse through past newsletters, contributions take many forms:
– Overviews of research programs and labs
– Discussion of new projects or ideas
– Summaries of work in progress
– 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! Just let us know what you’re up to. And for those of you who presented at the symposium, it’s just a matter of writing down what you said! You can find information about article formatting and deadlines below.
We look forward to hearing from you!
The AN Editorial Team
The timing of reproduction strongly influences reproductive success in many organisms. There is a fitness benefit for individuals who can align their reproductive bouts with conditions that positively influence both reproduction and survival of offspring. For species with extended reproductive seasons, like anoles, the quality of the environment often changes throughout the season in ways that impact offspring survival, and, accordingly, aspects of reproductive strategies may shift to maximize fitness. The Warner Lab has now conducted multiple studies of brown anoles (many unpublished, but see Pearson & Warner 2018) that demonstrate that early-produced offspring have a survival advantage over late-produced offspring. This is likely because individuals that hatch late in the reproductive season must compete with older, larger conspecifics and have less time to grow prior to the cool, dry winter months. Life-history theory predicts that when the offspring environment deteriorates through the season, selection should favor females that shift from producing more, smaller offspring early in the season to fewer, better provisioned offspring later in the season. In our recent paper, Tim Mitchell, Dan Warner, and I quantify seasonal changes in reproduction of brown anoles to determine if females seasonally alter their investment in offspring size vs number.
Figure 1. Differences in key reproductive traits between seasonal cohorts (1 – early; 2- mid; 3-late) of female brown anoles
We captured early, mid-, and late-season cohorts of breeding females and bred them in the lab while controlling proximate environmental variables that influence reproduction (e.g. food, temperature, humidity). These breeding colonies varied only by the capture date of the adult animals from the field. We measured key reproductive traits for each female (fecundity, egg size, egg quality, inter-clutch interval). Our cohorts exhibited variation in key reproductive traits consistent with seasonal shifts in reproductive effort (Figure 1). Overall, reproductive effort was highest early in the season due to a relatively high rate of egg production. Later season cohorts produced fewer, but larger, offspring. We infer that these results indicate a strategy for differential allocation of resources through the season. Females maximize offspring quantity when environments are favorable (early season), and maximize offspring quality when environments are poor for those offspring (late season). Despite the extra effort allocated to late-produced offspring, early-produced offspring have a significant survival advantage (Pearson & Warner 2018).
Several future directions are worth serious consideration: first, nearly all studies of anole reproduction in the field demonstrate that reproduction is somewhat seasonal. It is quite reasonable to assume that seasonal shifts in offspring size versus number are prevalent throughout the anole radiation. At this point, we simply don’t know (maybe because we have too many people studying male anoles and too few people studying female anoles – just kidding – but seriously – we’re recruiting!). Second, given the major differences in life-history between mainland and island species (e.g., lifespan, time to maturity), seasonal shifts in reproductive allocation likely differ between these groups as well. A robust assessment of how the mainland-island hypothesis (Andrews 1979) applies to reproductive allocation won’t be possible until we have more basic data on reproduction for many species – let’s get busy folks!
Andrews, R. M. (1979) Evolution of life histories: A comparison of Anolis lizards from matched islands and mainland habitat. Breviora, 454, 1–51.
Mitchell, T.S., Hall, J.M. and Warner, D.A., 2018. Female investment in offspring size and number shifts seasonally in a lizard with single-egg clutches. Evolutionary Ecology, pp.1-15.
Pearson, P.R. and Warner, D.A., 2018. Early hatching enhances survival despite beneficial phenotypic effects of late-season developmental environments. Proc. R. Soc. B, 285 (1874), p.20180256.
Stephen Colbert being bitten by a green anole
All is explained in the video below.
Bob Powell, long time Professor of Biology and Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri is retiring at the end of the Spring semester. Many of you know Bob personally, and others know him through his work on the natural history of West Indian reptiles and amphibians. Bob has had a major positive influence on numerous undergraduate students through his very successful REU program (11 different programs, 101 undergraduate students from 68 different colleges and universities).
Avila is hosting a celebration of Bob’s career at 2 PM on Saturday, 19 May in the Whitfield Conference Center on campus. Avila is located at 11901 Wornall Rd. in Kansas City, Missouri.
Detailed information about the celebration can be found at the following website: https://www.avila.edu/dr-powell-retirement
The webpage includes a link to RSVP, for donations to Avila in Bob’s honor, and to leave him a personal message.
Please join me in congratulating Bob on a fantastic career.
Finally, I will be attending the celebration, so if you have any messages or stories about Bob, please send me a personal message (megifford *at* uca *dot* edu) and I’ll include it in my remarks.
A Costa Rican anole graces the cover of the March 2018 issue of the British Ecological Society’s magazine ‘The Bulletin’. But what species is it? Photo by Roberto García Roa.
When you think of hotbeds of Anolis research, the United Kingdom probably isn’t the place that immediately springs to mind. And unsurprisingly – there are no dewlaps decorating the tree trunks of Wytham Woods. Of course, there is a strong tradition of anole research on this side of the pond including Roger Thorpe and Anita Malhotra at Bangor University and Katharina Wollenberg-Valero at the University of Hull (there’s undoubtedly more, past and present, of which I’m not aware; sorry if I’ve left you out!). Still, we’re unlikely to be hosting a spin-off Anolis Symposium (Anolis SympX?) any time soon and anoles certainly don’t dominate British Ecological Society (BES) meetings like they do SICB or Evolution. So, needless to say, when the March issue of the BES’s members’ publication The Bulletin thunked through my mail slot a few weeks ago, I was surprised to see one of this blog’s titular reptiles staring back at me. Though maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, we know that an anole loves a good cover shot. A quick delve into the magazine revealed that the photo was taken by Roberto García Roa from the University of Valencia and that Roberto won the Up Close and Personal category in the BES’s photography competition for his ‘mid-shed’ shot.
Roberto García Roa’s award winning anole photo.
My question for the Anole Annals readership is this: can anyone identify the species? The photo was taken in Costa Rica, but there’s no more information than that. Any thoughts?
Editor’s Note July 3, 2018: Robert Garcia Roa has provided this photo, which reveals that the species is <i>Anolis cristatellus</i>, an invasive species in Costa Rica.
The adhesive toe pads of anoles (above) and geckos give them these species “super powers.” (at least when compared to other lizards)
Herps make amazing wildlife ambassadors. Many small children read about them or see them in books, but rarely have first-hand contact with them. During a recent outreach event in the northern suburbs of Chicago, I met first and second graders that had never seen a live snake or lizard! When one came out of a bag, they lit up like they had just caught Santa emerging from the chimney on Christmas morning.
Based on that introduction, it is easy to conclude that I get a lot of enjoyment out of introducing the world of herps to small kids. I enjoy engaging with kids in ways that not only introduce them to the animals, but also in ways that could motivate them to pursue science throughout their education. Several years ago, I described an exercise aimed at getting kids to think about the ways that dewlaps are used during animal communication. This past weekend I tested a new exercise as an outreach activity for GEMS, Girls Empowered in Math and Science, which was hosted at Niles West High School in Skokie, IL. GEMS is organized to encourage fifth through seventh grade girls to pursue careers in STEM. This year’s event had about 135 girls registered across that age range! This exercise is meant to teach kids about the biology of the adhesive toe pad and the bioinspired engineering that led to the development of Geckskin.
Some of the tapes the students could pick from
The first objective of this exercise is to get the students thinking about how a lizard can climb rugose tree bark using their claws. Easy right? But what about clinging to a waxy leaf, hanging upside down from a ceiling, or traveling 80mph down a highway where their claws can’t be used? Compared to other lizards, this is their “super power.” After explaining the microanatomy of the toe pads to the class–the pad, setae, and spatula–I gave them a challenge. With a collection of every type of tape available at Home Depot (Duct, Scotch, painters, masking, packing, etc.), I challenged the students to choose one that could outperform a lizard’s toe pad. The students were broken into small groups, each taking a piece of wood and a small piece of Plexiglas (tree bark could also work but might not be reusable across many groups). Each group selects a type of tape that is then run through a battery of challenges during which time I provide the biological commentary:
- A lizard runs around all forest all day. Its toe pads must be reused over and over again without fail. How many times can your tape be reused before it is no longer sticky?
- A lizard must run on different surfaces–leaves, tree bark, rocks. How does the tape perform on different surfaces?
- A lizard doesn’t leave tracks where it walks. Does your tape leave a residue?
- As the lizard walks, does its foot stick to the surface it is walking on as it tries to take a step? How easy is the toe removed compared to your tape?
- Some days it will rain. Do lizards fall out of the trees when it rains? No. Now, what happens when your tape gets wet? (a moist sponge is provided)
- Lizard toes also get dirty. What happens if the tape gets dirty? Feel free to try to brush of as much dirt as possible after putting the tape in. (a dish of coconut bark was provided)
As the students are working through these challenges, I pull out a Lepidodactylus gecko and a knight anole from behind the table at the front of the room (they are usually clinging to the side of their cage which helps with the wow factor) and clicked through slides of lizards seeming to overcome each of these obstacles. A few smiles overcame the students as they realized that they had been bested by a tiny reptile.
Good natured volunteers demonstrating Geckskin technology.
After demonstrating that nature has come up with an amazing solution for adhesion, I pose a question to the kids, “What if we apply what we learned from these lizards to develop new products that we could use in everyday life?” Here I introduce them to the ingenuity of Geckskin (developed in part by ex -officio anole biologist Duncan Irschick). I must briefly digress to sincerely thank Phelsuma/Geckskin CEO Rana Gupta for providing Geckskin samples that I could demonstrate for these kids. As he says in the video, they “feel magical.” They are not tacky like tape, but stick to a variety of surfaces like a dream. There are some useful videos of Rana demonstrating the Geckskin products on the company’s website. The climax of my demonstration was pressing a 2X2 Geckskin Griphanger against a board as several girls held either side. Then, suspended by a piece of climbing cordellette, they hung a 5lb weight on this pad with my toes directly below. I bet the girls to use any of their tapes to do the same thing, but didn’t have any takers. (This could easily be another challenge offered to the students during a longer presentation.)
At the end of this demonstration the girls had the chance to meet Bob the red foot tortoise and Spot the ball python. (Anoles and geckos don’t make the best hands-on animals for presentations.) The presentation can readily go on without the use of live animals, but it seems to help bring the kids out of their shells and leads to a more memorable experience for them. I hope that others can use this write-up for motivation for some exercises they can employ during their next outreach activity. I am off to see some second graders in two weeks.
* I always appreciate feedback on these exercises as well. Fire away! 
Bob and Spot are always big hits.
It’s been 2 weeks now since we held the long-anticipated Anolis Symposium at the Fairchild Gardens in Miami, Florida. Although we called it the 7th symposium, it was in fact only the 4th of these meetings which have previously been held in 1989, 1999, and 2009. In case you are wondering, the 7 corresponds to the number of Anolis newsletters that have been published over the years, the last 3 following each Anolis Symposium (a tradition we would like to keep up).
It was an excellent weekend full of exceptional talks, great Cuban food, catching up with old friends and making new ones, and of course, lots of lizards! For those of you who were not in attendance, here’s a brief recap:
We had a great group of 68 attendees. Over half of the attendees presented talks or posters. As you can see from the picture, there were a lot of the younger generation (graduate students and post-docs) in attendance. The rest of you missed out on a great time!
The 34 talks spanned a broad range of topics, including genomics (CRISPR in Anoles!), phylogenetic methods, behavior, diet, morphology, invasion biology, adaptation and natural selection, and (my favorite) anoles in urban areas. There was a little bit of something for everyone and a lot of great work being done. It’s a very exciting time to be an anole biologist!
Organizers James Stroud and Anthony Geneva did a wonderful job with all the bells and whistles, including lizard beers brewed especially for the symposium!
And of course, the lizards did not disappoint!
Let’s not wait another 10 years to make the next one happen! We would like to hold the next one in 2023, who wants to help us plan it? Send me an email (kmwinchell@gmail.com) or comment here if you have suggestions for the next meeting or would like to be kept in the loop about planning. Where should we have it? What time of year? And if you were at the meeting, let us know in the comments what your favorite part of the meeting was.