Tag: anolis Page 1 of 3

In Fall 2011, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) Anoline Lizard Specialist Group (ALSG) was approved. The group had a good run for several years before entering a period of inactivity. At present, all IUCN activity pertaining to anoles goes through the IUCN Snake and Lizard Red List Authority, rather than an anole-specific IUCN Specialist Group.

Luke Mahler said it well back in his 2012 Anole Annals post:

Anoles are well-known for a lot of reasons, but conservation is not one of them.

Unfortunately – and despite the deep appreciation and fascination many of us have with anoles – anole conservation still seems to be on the backburner. This does not stem from a lack of caring, but rather from a lack of time. With over 380 anole species described, the lack of an Anoline Lizard SG gives the impression that anole biologists do not care about their conservation. I know this is not true and I am therefore in the process of gauging interest in re-establishing an IUCN SSC Specialist Group that would develop conservation, science, and outreach activities to facilitate the survival of wild anoles in their natural habitats.

Please fill out this short Google form if you have any interest in helping re-establish the IUCN SSC Anoline Lizard Specialist Group.

I would like to underscore that when the ALSG was active, anole biologists contributed to many anole Red List assessments and other important conservation actions for numerous anole species. This was a major improvement compared to what little had been done for anole conservation prior to the establishment of the ALSG. The initial establishment of the ALSG was a huge step in the right direction, but we have to keep going. There remains plenty of action to be taken to conserve anoles, particularly anoles that are comparatively understudied, occur at low densities, have small or restricted distributions, or are actively facing habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation (and more). Re-establishing the IUCN SSC ALSG will give us a platform through which to build an anole conservation network as we work to improve anole conservation efforts globally.

I would also like to emphasize that our work will not stop at simply re-establishing the SG. We will need to develop goals and objectives for the group and find ways to reach these goals – all in an effort to promote and improve anole conservation. As you all know, there are a lot of anoles species and therefore, we need a lot of people on board!

Please feel free to reach out to me at anna.thonis@stonybrook.edu with any questions you may have.

I am hopeful and excited to talk with many of you about how we can develop a thriving and active ALSG in the near future!

All the best,

Anna Thonis

Shape Variation of the Pectoral Girdle of Anolis Ecomorphs

By Alex Tinius

On March 16, 2022

In Education and Anoles, Research Methods

The first three paragraphs of Jane Peterson’s contribution to the Second Anolis Newsletter.

Jane Peterson’s contribution to The Second Anolis Newsletter remains one of the most comprehensive exemplars of functional-morphological research of the anoline appendicular girdles. In just a few short paragraphs Peterson (1974) outlined the key differences in pectoral girdle morphology between the Anolis ecomorphs, drawing information from both field observations and anatomical dissections of anoles from all four Greater Antillean islands. The outlined study could have formed a major contribution to our understanding of ecomorphology, had these brief observations ever been expanded into a scientific publication. Sadly, they remained as notes, confined to a brief communique on an informal basis (that continues to be formally cited). Several intriguing studies hence have examined anole appendicular morphology, but rarely allowed for implications that reach across multiple island radiations (e.g. Anzai et al. 2014, Herrel et al. 2018).

With my 2016 Ph.D. thesis, I set out to quantify what Jane Peterson had observed forty years prior, and must confess that I still fall short of reproducing the multitude of implications that Peterson’s (1974) brief descriptions alluded to. Instead of combining video-recorded movement cycles with morphological descriptions, my comparisons are solely based on three-dimensional shape analysis of the skeletal elements that comprise the breast-shoulder apparatus (BSA): the clavicle, interclavicle, presternum, and scapulocoracoid (Fig. 1). Employing the power of computed tomography scanning, and geometric morphometric analysis, I quantified the shapes of the central elements of the pectoral girdle, and compared these across anole radiations.

As with earlier work, I focused on the Jamaican ecomorph representatives, and sought out their ecomorph counterparts from Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, particularly targeting those species that are the most and least similar to the Jamaican forms. That last line of thought did not reveal any straightforward answers, as the complex structural shape of the BSA allows these anoles to be relatively distinct in some aspects, while being quite similar in others. For example, the general shape of the presternum and interclavicle are quite similar between the two trunk-ground anoles Anolis lineatopus (Jamaica) and A. gundlachi (Puerto Rico), while that of the scapulocoracoid differs quite remarkably between the two. These complex associations will take a more detailed analysis than what is warranted here, so I’ll focus on the bigger picture instead.

Fig. 1: CT-rendition of the skeletal components of the breast-shoulder apparatus of Anolis baleatus in lateromedial view, depicting all anatomical features described in the text. The gray arrow denotes anterior.

Skeletal elements of the BSA in isolation

Previous analysis of the scapulocoracoid in isolation revealed that its shape differs between Anolis habitat specialists, and resembles a particularly dorsoventrally tall shape in twig anoles (Tinius et al. 2020). The other ecomorph groups (trunk-ground, trunk-crown, and crown-giant) show obvious tendencies towards a particular structural organization, but in none of these does the scapulocoracoid resemble a truly characteristic shape.

#DidYouAnole – Anolis allogus

By Chelsea Connor

On December 24, 2021

In All Posts

Photo: Alex Alfil, iNaturalist

Hello!

Happy Holidays and Happy Anole Eve!

I took a break for my birthday, and then it was a holiday, then finals, then I had to travel, but now I’m back and it’s almost a holiday again. Before another holiday I did wanna share a short anole post! I’ve also missed doing this and I’ve been thinking about what anole to do since I got to see the anole specimens at the London Natural History Museum.

I picked a festive little Cuban anole, Anolis allogus, also called the Spanish Flag anole or Bueycito anole (after a village where it can be found).

The males of this trunk-ground anole species have an SVL of ~60 mm, while females are about ~49 mm. Its distribution is sporadic but it’s found mostly in the east of Cuba. They follow the typical trunk-ground anole coloration of light or dark grey-brown tones, with striping on their tails, and marbling on their sides. Male Bueycito anoles have pale yellow dewlaps with either a center dot or lateral center stripes of bright red/red-orange. Females have smaller pale yellow dewlaps.

Photo: Alex Alfil, iNaturalist

Spanish flag anoles have been recorded predating on a species of Blindsnake. Check it out here!

I know this was short but I just wanted to say hi really quickly and Happy New Year!

#DidYouAnole – Anolis gundlachi

By Chelsea Connor

On November 12, 2021

In All Posts

Photo: macrhybopsis, iNaturalist

I think as far as anole common names go, Yellow-beard is a top 10 name, just barely, but it’s up there.

The Yellow-beard anole, Anolis gundlachi, is endemic to Puerto Rico which is so overflowing with anoles I think it’s a little bit unfair at this point. With an SVL of about 68 mm in males and 45 mm in females, these medium sized anoles live at high elevations in the forest.

Yellow-beard anoles, following that trunk-ground color scheme, are dark olive to brown with darker striping across their backs and a pale colored ventral side. Their dewlaps aren’t quite yellow but are more of a mustard-brown, and their chins have a touch of pale yellow (Yellow-chinned anole doesn’t sound as good as Yellow-beard though). Males often have tail crests!

Photo: Steve Maldonado Silvestrini, iNaturalist

Like many of the anoles we know and love, Yellow-beards may eat other anoles and frogs that can fit in its mouth.

Yellow-beard anoles are often parasitized by malaria, and while more research needs to be done on parasite in this anole, there are existing ones noting tail damage in infected anoles and that males are more often infected, and another noting no significant decrease in overall body condition that you can check out.

#DidYouAnole? – Anolis alvarezdeltoroi

By Chelsea Connor

On October 29, 2021

In All Posts

Photo: Wouter Beukema, iNaturalist

So I’ve been reading a lot of anole papers, aside from the ones I normally read for fun (can’t believe I read papers for fun now), and I found an anole that’s pretty similar to two anoles I’ve looked at before but also still unusual.

Welcome back by the way. Nice to have to you here again.

This week is a third little cave anole, Anolis alvarezdeltoroi, or the Mexican cave anole. Mexican cave anoles live in a similar karst limestone habitat like Anolis bartschi and Anolis lucius and are often found deep inside caves, occasionally sleeping from the roof it. They may also perch from vegetation in or around the caves, particularly as juveniles.

Photo: Daniel Pineda Vera, iNaturalist

Like the other two anoles, the Mexican cave anole has a similar short body/long hindleg morphology. In a paper redescribing the species, the average SVL of the male anoles they measured was 53.3-74.0 mm, and 49.6-66.5 mm in females.

They seem to rely heavily on the karst habitat with healthy populations being found in areas with diminished forest but intact limestone/cave areas.

Male Mexican cave anoles have dark red dewlaps with white lateral rows of scales, while females have smaller black dewlaps with a similar pattern.

Photo: Arístides García Vinalay, iNaturalist

Please read the paper redescribing this anole here! For a while there was only a specimen available of it and not much info, but they worked on it and you should check it out. I wouldn’t have been able to write this if it wasn’t for them.

A Summer of Observing an Allison’s Anole Colony in Florida

By delton howard

On October 10, 2021

In All Posts

Imagine being notified that someone is at your door, only to find this friendly fellow on your doorbell!

This is the everyday experience for residents of a lush neighborhood in Tampa, Florida, that have had a rogue Allison’s anole colony pop up and spread across their houses and yards. Many residents love and cherish the beautiful anoles and have been happy to share them with me. So these pictures are the result of this summer’s visits to the colony. Enjoy these beautiful anoles and the stories that come with them!

Having heard about the location, I sent letters to all the homeowners in the area, requesting permission to study the colony. Many homeowners generously allowed me to wander their properties with gates kindly opened for me.

The male above is one of the alpha males near the epicenter. Around 70-80% of the males observed were on houses, instead of trees and bushes as normally expected from an arboreal anole.

The other alpha male of the epicenter is pictured below in the next three pictures.

His territory includes the lily plants where the first anole was spotted by the homeowner in 2017. This is clearly defined as the epicenter, since the rest of the surrounding homeowners said that they did not see the A. allisoni until a year or two later.

Here is his reaction to me getting too close and bothering him.

A female, pictured above warily watching me, is less dressed to impress and more to camouflage.

One of the most common ways for invasive anoles to spread is through the plant trade. Bromeliads, lilies, and other thick shrubs are imported from Cuba or other countries in the Caribbean with anole eggs unknowingly hidden in their leaves and trunks. When the plants arrive and are placed in a lush garden, or kept at a nursery, the eggs hatch and the anoles grow and being to reproduce, starting a new non-native population.

Pictured above is one of the many new arrivals to the colony this season. Eggs are laid from April-October and hatch from May-December.

A male, pictured below, whose territory does not include any houses, but a few trees and a fence, displays and then scurries away to hide in his tree.

Before catching sight of me, he was proudly displaying himself.

After noticing me he escaped into his tree.

Across the street, two anoles mate while clinging to the side of a house. You can see the drastic sexual dimorphism in this species in this picture, as well as the deep blue coloration that comes out in the males while mating or during territorial disputes.

The anoles seem to prefer properties on the block with houses that have rough stucco walls to cling to, for example the beautiful male below. Houses with smooth exterior siding are shunned by A. allisoni at this colony.

The male below is one of my personal favorites at the colony, a male with almost every color of the rainbow! I only saw him during one visit in July, and in my many visits since then, I have not once seen him. Did he leave to find a new territory? Or was he eaten by a predator? I hope to one day see him again.

Above, another alpha male surveys his territory from a branch, and after catching sight of me, decides to leap away and leave the scene.

Video linked below.

He leapt away.

Video linked below.

And then he taunted me in his successful escape.

Another blue male and a female from his territory, a few feet away.

The colony’s active season is between March and September. Outside of these months, the males have subdued colors, remain brown most of the time, and hide in nooks and crannies of the exterior of the houses.

A young male watches me as I take his picture, above. It was a great experience to find one mid-transition from juvenile to adult and see the colors coming in nicely. Sadly, I have not seen this anole either since then.

A male on the northern outskirts of the colony displays from a tree.

A male with some vivid light blue coloration peeks over the top of a fence to spy on me.

This is an interesting observation. Note the markings on this male clinging upside down to the side of a fence. Was he grabbed by a bird or bitten by a rival male? The rounded imprint close to his legs seems to give away some kind of injury.

A vivid green female peers at me inquisitively.

A juvenile popping its head out from a bush.

Usually I was able to spot at least one mating pair on each of my visits.

An interesting observation, this adult male with no blue, only green.

This male has proclaimed himself King of the Gutter, and basks in his territory.

This male is acrobatically clinging upside down to a copper pipe.

It was interesting to see the variety in the blue coloration.

Just a year ago, I believed I would have to journey to Cuba to see these exotic creatures. Little did I know I would be spending the following summer with them without leaving home!

I will return to the colony March 2022 to continue my observations. Follow me on iNaturalist as well for more anole content!

If you’re interested in seeing more Florida Allison’s anoles, please visit my Instagram @dailyanole. Don’t forget to watch my video on this colony as well!

#DidYouAnole – Anolis acutus

By Chelsea Connor

On October 8, 2021

In All Posts

Photo: Manuel Leal

Hi!

Turns out grad school eats up a lot of your time some weeks. Who knew!

So here is a pretty cool Caribbean anole this week. Anolis acutus, the Sharp Anole is endemic to St. Croix. These anoles are tan to olive in colour. Their dewlaps are white with a large yellow-orange blotch closer to the body. Males have an average SVL of 67mm and females, about 49mm.

Photo: Brett, iNaturalist

They are territorial and maintain hierarchies within their habitats. If an individual is removed, they become slightly agitated until the territory is taken over by a new anole or the individual returns (Ruibal & Philibosian, 1974). The adults also tend to be sedentary and have a perch height hierarchy, but exclude juveniles from occupied trees leaving them to find and occupy empty ones or live on the ground (Ruibal & Philibosian, 1974).

St Croix anoles appear to be eurythermal, meaning they have a broad temperature range (McManus & Nellis, 1973).

Photo: nolafrog, iNaturalist

#DidYouAnole – Anolis rubribarbus

By Chelsea Connor

On September 23, 2021

In All Posts

Photo: Alex Alfil, iNaturalist

I almost missed that it’s been a year of #DidYouAnole!! Thank you for sticking with me and learning about these lizards!

For this super belated one year anniversary, I have both an anole and a request.

First, the anole!

Anolis rubribarbus is a trunk-ground anole from Cuba. Specifically the eastern half of the Holguín province, around the town of Sagua de Tánamo from whence it gets one of its common names. The Sagua de Tánamo anole lives in the rainforest and possibly on rocky montane habitat in its range.

It’s listed as endangered due to its very limited range.

Also known as the Cuban tiger anole, their dewlaps are yellow with orange stripes and they are tan to olive with darker vertical stripes, like a… you know… tiger.

Photo: Alex Alfil, iNaturalist

Now for my request! I couldn’t find a lot about this anole’s ecology or natural history, so if you have worked on this species or know someone who does, please let me know!

In the meantime, here is a year in anoles from my Twitter, and from the blog!
Thank you! It means a lot to get to share these lizards with you.

#DidYouAnole – Anolis heterodermus

By Chelsea Connor

On September 9, 2021

In All Posts

Photo: Wilmar Agudelo Sánchez, iNaturalist

It’s been a while since we’ve looked at an anole from South America, so why not go all the way over to an an anole that is probably at the highest elevation an anole species has ever been found: Anolis heterodermus, the Flat Andes anole!

Photo: Alejandro Lopez, iNaturalist

Anolis heterodermus lizards are arboreal and can be found on montane elevations in Colombia and Ecuador at about 2,600 m (8,530 ft). As you can guess, living at an such an elevation should be too cold for a lizard, but the Flat Andes anole is ok with this. They have been found to have wider preferred and body temperature ranges than expected for anoles and have adapted to take advantage of the limited hours of sun that the area gets (Méndez-Galeano & Calderón-Espinosa, 2017).

These anoles are large rich green to olive lizards with males being slightly larger than females at 85.4mm and 85mm respectively. They have wide banding on their bodies and both males and females have a patch on their tails that have been observed to change from red to blue throughout the day. This patch is larger in males (Beltrán, 2019) and is another sign of sexual dimorphism in this species. Their dewlaps are pink striped.

More on Anolis heterodermus from the pages of Anole Annals here.

Photo: Javier David Quiroga Nova, iNaturalist

#DidYouAnole – Anolis roquet

By Chelsea Connor

On September 3, 2021

In All Posts

From an island made up of other islands, is an anole species with lots of subspecies. Not entirely the same, but sort of.

This week’s anole is Anolis roquet, and its six subspecies. Also called the Martinique anole or savannah anole, it is endemic to the island and the subspecies are visibly different in the specific geographic regions they inhabit there. This means that much like Anolis oculatus, they are a great example of intraspecific variation. Male Martinique anoles typically have an SVL of 86mm and females are around 66mm.

The nominate subspecies (originally described) Anolis roquet roquet, can be found in wooded habitats near the penisula on the island, and is usually green in colour with spotting or stripes (in females).

Photo: Erika Mitchell, iNaturalist

Anolis roquet caracoli can also be found in similar habitat, but prefers more dense forest and is on the Caravelle Peninsula itself. Males of this subspecies have a more marbled pattern, while females have dorsal striping. Both are usually brown.

Photo: Erika Mitchell, iNaturalist

Moving to north coast, we find Anolis roquet majolgris, an olive-to-brown coloured subspecies. This anole tends to be darker; while the females also feature dorsal striping like those of the other subspecies, the males have small scattered spotted patterning and may have white blotches around their heads (Anderson et al, 2016).

Northwest, on the elevations of Mt. Pelée, is the montane subspecies, Anolis roquet summus. As its rainforest habitat would suggest, this anole is mostly a bold green. Males have a dark marbled and spotted pattern on their backs and sides and females have a chevron dorsal stripes and may have faint lateral mottled patterning.

Photo by Thomas Ackermann.

A tan to brown subspecies occupies the west coast, with males that feature a stripe pattern that most likely inspired its epithet, Anolis roquet zebrilus. The females are more drab and less boldly striped.

Photo can be found here.

Last but not least is Anolis roquet salinei, the southeasternmost subspecies. These anoles are olive to yellow-green and brown. Males have black bars on their back and splotches on their heads, while females have dark mottled patterning.

Photo: Erika Mitchell, iNaturalist

Both males and females have dewlaps with the males being larger and more brightly coloured. Recently, an adult male was discovered at a port in Dominica, likely having come in with a shipment. It was captured and recorded.