Blogging at Evolution 2017: Anole Annals Wants YOU!

With summer just around the corner (any day now, Boston!) that can only mean one thing – the annual ASN/SSE/SSB sponsored Evolution meeting is almost here! This year the anole community is attending in full force with 2 posters, 11 regular talks, and 2 symposium talks.

We regularly cover this meeting here at Anole Annals, and once again we are asking for YOU to help us out. If you will be attending Evolution and are interested in writing a short blog post about one or more of the talks or posters, send me an email (kristin.winchell001@umb.edu) or comment below. I will give you all the information you need to get started and a little help on how to write a blog post for us if you haven’t done so before. We always appreciate the extra help and fresh perspectives.

For those of you not attending the meeting (or maybe still debating attending), here’s the current list of anole talks in the schedule.  Are you particularly excited about a talk at Evolution this year? Did we miss a talk that should be on our list? Let us know in the comments!

Title Lead Author
Are we wrong about territoriality in Anolis lizards? A. Kamath
Evolutionary analysis of viral strains infecting a single anole species S. Prado-Irwin
Deeply conserved genetic constraints influence adaptive radiation of Anolis lizards J. McGlothlin
Macroevolution of the dewlap and diversification of Anolis lizards T. Ingram
Using sexually antagonistic skewers to explore the genetic architecture of sexual dimorphism in Anolis lizards R. Cox
Evaluating the evidence for protein coding convergence in phenotypically convergent anoles R. Corbett-Detig
Variation in dominance traits and body condition in urban Anolis cristatellus D. Briggs
Population trascriptomic analysis of ecologically differentiated, partially reproductively isolated Anolis lizards A. Geneva
Natural selection in behavior? A field experiment with Anolis lizards from the Caribbean O. Lapiedra
Temporal variation of anthropogenic perch use by populations of forest and urban lizards K. Aviles-Rodriguez
The influence of relatedness and size on spatial structure in an urban population of Anolis carolinensis lizards W. Weber
Urban adaptation in Lizards: Connecting phenotypic shifts with performance and survival K. Winchell
Character displacement in evolutionary-novel Anolis lizards J. Stroud
Does competition between the Dominican native Anolis oculatus and the invasive Anolis cristatellus drive changes in ecological, agonistic and reproductive traits? C. Dufour
Population genomics of Anolis carolinensis transposable elements: insertion polymorphisms are abundant but rarely approach fixation R. Ruggiero

Odd-Looking Belizean Anole

P1080639

Bill Rainey observed this lizard on a restored portion of one temple at Altun Ha, an ancient Mayan city in modern-day Belize, in an area shaded by trees. Anyone know what it is?

Anolis ruibali: Everything You Need to Know

ruibali

The following is taken from the Society for the Study of Amphibian and Reptile’s website:

Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles

The Catalogue consists of accounts of taxa prepared by specialists, including synonymy, description, diagnosis, phylogenetic relationships, published descriptions, illustrations, distribution map, and comprehensive list of literature for each taxon. Over 900 accounts have been published since the initiation of the series in 1963. The series covers amphibians and reptiles of the entire Western Hemisphere. Previously, accounts were published as loose-leaf separates; beginning in 2013 accounts are published as on-line PDFs.  All accounts are open access and are available for free download at the University of Texas Library Repository.

Just this week, one of the latest catalogue entries is for the little known Anolis ruibali of Cuba, written by Robert Powell, Javier Torres, and Nils Navarro Pacheco.

ruibali2

Teid Lizard Eats an Anole

Poor Anolis, snack box of the jungle. Seems that just about anything will eat an anole. So, it’s not surprise to learn that the teid lizard Kentropyx calcarata joins the lizard of anole consumers. So report Franzini et al. in a recent report in Herpetology Notes. Anolis fuscoauratus was the unfortunate victim, the crime discovered by examination of stomach contents.

How Do Limb, Head and Tail Length Differences Arise during Embryological Development in Lizards?

andrews2

Consider two lizard species that differ in limb length, with one species having relatively longer legs than others. During development, how does this difference arise? Do the limbs start at the same length when they first appear in the embryo, but grow at a greater rate in the longer-legged species? Or is the initial limb bud longer in the embryo of the longer-legged species, and then the rate of growth the same in the two species, preserving the initial difference?

Thom Sanger’s elegant work showed that the latter answer is correct for Anolis: the limb buds of long-legged species start out longer and then grow in parallel with those of shorter-legged species.

But does this finding also hold when comparing across a broader range of lizards? Robin Andrews and Sable Skewes decided to find out, comparing embryos of a chameleon, two geckos, and the brown anole.

The answer: the same pattern as within anoles! And it applies to tail length (but not head length) as well as limbs.

andrews

The Evolution Of Morphological Diversity In Tropidurine Lizards: the Influence Of Habitat

AA1

Uracentron flaviceps (upper photo) and Microlophus thoracicus (lower photo), two tropidurine lizards adapted to rainforests and deserts, respectively.

I was lucky enough to spend some months working at the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard as part of the Losos lab. There I learned a good deal about anoles and got to meet anole-loving people face to face. Even though this atmosphere tempted me to develop a project related to one of the greatest examples of adaptive radiation, I had other plans in mind involving some of their distant cousins: tropidurine lizards! The results of this study are already published (Toyama, 2017) and I will describe a bit of what I found.

Tropidurinae is a group of lizards whose representatives have diversified across South America. They come in different shapes, colors and sizes, as you would expect from any group of organisms spreading in a diverse territory in terms of habitats, climates and altitudes. Rainforests, deserts, mountains and dry forests are just some examples of the different ecosystems where you can find these lizards. Given this scenario, I wondered if the morphological diversity observed in this clade could be linked to the challenges imposed by the different habitats types found in the continent.

Inspired by similar studies that focused on other lizard radiations, I took measurements of functional morphological traits of several species of lizards coming from 10 out of the 12 genera comprising the Tropidurinae. These traits would allow me to look for a possible correspondence between morphology and habitat.

However, as I was not only interested in the link between morphology and habitat use, but also in the morphological diversity itself, I started looking at purely morphological information. The next figure shows the illustrative results of a Principal Component Analysis (PCA), which tries to separate the species as much as possible based on the morphological measurements. In the figure, we can observe how the dots of each color (representing species of the same genus) occupy a particular zone in the graph. This means that, in general, species of the same genus are, as expected, morphologically more similar between them than to species of other genera (exceptions aside, given the overlaps between some genera).

figure2

Scatter plot showing the morphological space defined by PC1 and PC2. Each dot represents the average values for a species, and species are grouped in genera (colors). Abbreviations are shown for some traits as HL (head length), HW (head width), HH (head height), BW (body width), BH (body height), Dist (distance between limbs), Htoe (longest toe of the hind limb), and Ftoe (longest toe of the forelimb).

Going a bit farther in respect to morphological diversity,

Box Turtle Scavenges Green Anole!

My good friend Trace Hardin, a professional entomologist but also avid herper and snake breeder, just sent me these photos below. Here’s what he had to say about the encounter on Instagram:

hardinherpetologica: Interesting observation while walking through the woods. Found this #BoxTurtle eating a dead #GreenAnole. I’m assuming it was a scavenged find but the entire body was gone by the time I came upon the scene. #Neature

IMG_6792

IMG_6789

Has anyone else observed box turtles (or any other chelonian [I guess now testudine?]) interacting with anoles?

What Drives Substrate Use Patterns in Semiaquatic Anoles?

Anolis oxylophus at La Selva Biological Station (left, photo by Christian Perez) and Anolis aquaticus at Las Cruces Biological Station (right, posed).

Anolis oxylophus at La Selva Biological Station (left, photo by Christian Perez) and Anolis aquaticus at Las Cruces Biological Station (right, posed).

Among anoles, West Indian ecomorphs are the best known microhabitat specialists, but they are not the only ones. Semiaquatic anoles, of which there are 11 described species, live exclusively near streams and will sometimes enter water to feed or to escape a threat. The Central American species Anolis aquaticus appears to be specialized for climbing on rocks, particularly relative to other Central American semiaquatic anoles (Muñoz et al. 2015). Recent posts on A. aquaticus have addressed sleep site fidelity, dewlaps and trait scaling, and underwater foraging.

During a field ecology course with the Organization for Tropical Studies last winter, I compared patterns of substrate use between A. aquaticus and another Central American semiaquatic anole, Anolis oxylophus. Unlike A. aquaticus, A. oxylophus perches predominantly on woody and leafy substrates (Table 1). I wondered what was driving the differences in substrate use between these two species that appear broadly similar in morphology and lifestyle. Some Caribbean anoles alter their behavior to use only a narrow subset of available substrates in their habitat, whereas others have a greater breadth of substrate use that more closely reflects habitat-wide availability (Irschick and Losos, 1999; Mattingly and Jayne, 2004; Johnson et al., 2006). To evaluate whether substrate use differences between A. aquaticus and A. oxylophus are driven by substrate availability, species-specific selectivity, or both, I simultaneously quantified lizard substrate use and substrate availability within their streamside habitats.

Evolutionary Predictability: Can We Predict the Color of One Lizard Species by Looking at Repeated Patterns of Geographic Variation on Other Islands?

Thanks to the work of Roger Thorpe and colleagues, Lesser Antillean anoles are renowned as an example of adaptive geographic variation. On many islands in the Lesser Antilles, populations in wet areas, where vegetation is lush, are green in color, whereas those in more xeric areas tend to be a drab gray, often with markings on their back. This pattern is repeated on many different islands, the convergent geographic variation thus making a strong case for the adaptive basis of anole coloration.

See Pavitra Muralidhar’s previous post for more information on geographic variation in Lesser Antillean anoles.

In a new paper in PLoS One, Thorpe takes this work a step further, asking whether we can use the parallel patterns seen across Lesser Antillean islands to predict the coloration of an anole species on another island. The focal species is Anolis bonairensis, which occupies the extraordinarily dry island of Bonaire (see our previous posts on this species).

The prediction: A. bonairensis should be grayer and drabber than populations of anoles that occur at the driest sites on Lesser Antillean answers.

The answer: yes! Just as predicted, Anolis bonairensis is one drab lizard. Score one for evolutionary predictability!

thorpe

Anolis bonairensis is represented by the red circles. The x-axis goes from aridity on the left to the most mesic on the right. As you can see, A. bonairensis‘s color and patterning is well-predicted by variation in other species.

New Mainland Green Anole Recognized

Anolis biporcatus, one of the prettiest of anoles. Photo by Thomas Marent

Anolis biporcatus is, if I’m not mistaken, the largest mainland beta/Norops anoles, attaining a length of ca. 100 mm snout-vent. In addition, it has an enormous geographic distribution, ranging from southern Mexico to Ecuador. In a new paper in Salamandra, a team of New Mexican and Ecuadorian biologists headed by Janet Armstead have sliced off part of the species, raising the Ecuadorian/Colombian A. biporcatus parvauritus to species status. They make this decision based on a detailed analysis of morphology and molecular data. Their data also find deep genetic subdivisions within A. biporcatus in Costa Rica, suggesting that there may be more cryptic species awaiting recognition.

A key difference between the species is the color of the distal scales on the dewlap of males, white in biporcatus, black in parvauritus.

biporc male

Note, too, that like many mainland anoles, the males and females have very different dewlaps.

biporc females

Here’s the distribution of the two species:

map

Page 83 of 300

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén