Name that lizard.
Mark Catesby was a famous wildlife artist who preceded Audubon by 100 years. He is best known for The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahamas Islands, which is the subject of an article, “Catesby’s Gallery: A Trailblazing Naturalist in the New World,” in the February, 2011 issue of Natural History magazine. The article has reproductions of a number of his paintings, mostly birds, but also plants a crab and… “in a whimsical painting, Catesby shows a Jamaican Anolis lizard, splay-legged and getting a toehold on leafy sprigs of a mainland tree, the sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua).” Elsewhere, the article comments that the pairing of the Jamaican anole with a Carolina sweet gum was “seemingly random.” More importantly, what is the anole? My guess is a female A. garmani. But, the color might also be consistent with an A. grahami aquarum. Thoughts?
(p.s. Thanks to Pops for pointing out this article to me)