Colombia holds more than 75 species of Anole lizards, making them the second most speciose vertebrate genus in our country next to the frog genus Pristimantis. Most species are shared with other countries of Central America and northern South America, but anoles have diverged in such an incredible way in Colombia that a large number of quite interesting and endemic species occur in the mountain highlands of the Andes, the insular portion of the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean and the Chocó and Amazonian lowlands. Thirteen anole species have been registered for the Caribbean region, including lowlands and serranías. Most of these species have not been studied and the remaining habitats are disappearing at an accelerated rate, which is the reason why I find myself motivated to write this note, focusing on one of the least known neotropical lizard biotas.
Anolis Onca a desert sand dweller, Guajira, Colombia. Photo courtesy of Luis Alberto Rueda 2012
Sierra Nevada lonely twig anole. Anolis solitarius from Sierra Nevada de santa Marta (photo by Luis Alberto Rueda)
The Caribbean lowlands are one of the hottest and driest places in Colombia. This region extends from the northern Guajira deserts to the floodable plains of Cordoba. Its interior dominant habitats include seasonal dry forests, desert formations and riparian ecosystems. These habitats have been considered to be threatened by deforestation; only 1% of the dry forest formations still remain, which is why it is considered one of the most vulnerable ecosystems in the nation next to cloud forests and paramos. Islands can be those land surfaces surrounded by water or those which have simply been isolated preventing migration of dispersal-limited species such as small vertebrates. Islands as the San Andres archipelago and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta have been isolated for thousands of years in such a way that most of the fauna that inhabits them is endemic. Anoles are not the exception; three endemics are registered for the cloud forests of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Anolis santamartae, A. menta, A. solitarius) and two species for the San Andres and Providencia islands (Anolis Pinchoti, A. concolor).