The Anolis Lizards: The Greater Antilles

Speciation is the process by which new species are formed. Sometimes, geographical isolation plays a part like it did in the Galapagos islands. Other times, despite many factors influencing speciation, it doesn't occur even after millions of years. This article was on geographical isolation and how it can influence speciation, or in the case of the island lizards, on why speciation sometimes doesn't occur.

The Santo Stefano Lizard, Podsrcis Sicula Sanctistephani, went extinct in 1965. The Santo Stefano Lizard lives on Santo Stefano Island and is also a Mediterranean type. The lizard likes being near a lot of water. The species ranged out to Italy, South Of Alphs, Sicily, Saradinia, and many other islands. The lizard has been introduced to a number of sites in the United States, Libya, And Tunisia (broom02.revolvy.com). The Santo Stefano Lizard lives on Santo Stefano which is a very small island near Ventotene and its off the west coast of Italy. A feral cat and snakes killed off most of the population.

In the article "The snake that is eating Florida" written by Lauren Tarshis, it states that,"The Burmese python is not a specie naturally found in the everglades."How did it get here. A hurricane hit Florida in the 1990's and wreaked a reptile war house which had baby Burmese pythons in it. The wind in the hurricane was blowing to the west, strait to Miami/everglades. That's how the Burmese python got to the everglades, and then they became invasive.

to the muskox (Ovibos moschatus). Around the beginning of September, Arctic vampire lizards will climb up the legs of muskoxen grazing on the last vegetation of the summer. Using its long toes to climb, the Arctic vampire lizard will navigate through the fur of its muskox. Like some snakes, the vampire lizard has a pit organ located beneath the nostrils with which the lizard can detect infrared radiation (Gracheva et al. 2010). The Arctic vampire lizard uses the heat sensing organ to locate where blood vessels lie close to the skin on the muskox. After locating a site, the Arctic vampire lizard will use its razor sharp teeth to first shave the area of hair, then to

Staurikosaurus is a dinosaur within the therapod group. Its name is Greek for “Southern Cross Lizard,” named after a small cross constellation visible in the southern hemisphere. It was named by Edwin H. Colbert and its species name is “pricei,” named after Colbert’s colleague, Llewellyn Ivor Price. Price discovered the dinosaur in 1936 in Southern Brazil, but it was described by Colbert in 1970. Staurikosaurus lived in the late Triassic period, roughly 225 million years ago, making it one of the earlier dinosaurs. It was relatively small, standing only 2.25 meters tall, but stretching to a long 7.5 meters from head to tail. It also only weighed about 66 pounds. While the fossil record of the Staurikosaurus is relatively incomplete, scientists

Two anoles on different islands can have similar traits as long as their ecological niches are similar, however geographic isolation was the cause to have 3 different species evolving. They might have evolved by having swam, floated on natural rafts, or the islands may have been connected at one point. Therefore, lizards on the same island are more closely related to each other than lizards that have similar body shapes and live in the same type of habitat. Lizards from the same island are more closely related to one another than to similar looking lizards from other islands. For example, a grass-bush anole from Puerto Rico is more related a trunk-ground anole also from Puerto Rico, than it is to a grass-bush anole from Hispaniola. This shows that the same type of anole lizards evolve independently on each of the islands. However, there was a point in time whereas the anole species from the four Caribbean islands all evolved from one common ancestor. The cladogram produced shows that species from separate islands and ecomorphs, for example the A. cybotes from Hispaniola and the A. occultus from Puerto Rico, are more closely related to each other than they are to L. carinatus, which belongs to a different genus of lizards. The DNA evidence gathered from anoles from the four islands is able to determine the ancestry of a single species that inhabited the Caribbean allowed for diversity of new species in the

This week we executed 11 Mohave Fringed-toed Lizard surveys between 19 April 2016 and 21 April 2016. The effort for these surveys summated to 17.5 hours, during which we observed 28 MFTLs! One of the female MFTLs that was captured appeared to have blood on the ventral side of its tail. This lizard was forced out of a narrow burrow when Cody gracefully fell through a nearby burrow. In addition to MFTLs, we observed three Gambelia wislizenii(Figure 1) on rocky substrates nearby dunes. Along with these badass lizards, we observed a Bufo punctatus in a culvert that ran underneath Colorado Arizona Project canal while traveling to a plot on foot. During our free time, we conducted a Chionactis occipitalis night survey on a large dune. This night

Eleutherodactylus coqui Thomas 1966 (Anura: Leptodactylidae) also known as the Puerto Rican Coqui. Can be found naturally in Puerto Rico up to elevations of 1,200m. They have been introduced to southern Florida, Hawaii, and U.S. Virgin Islands. Their specific biome is the Puerto Rican Tropical Rain forest. Their Birth cycle begins as an eggs mass that may contain 34-75 egg clusters, which can be found rolled or folded into leaves with the aid of male who brooded them and keeps them moist until they hatch in 17 to 26 days.

Phrynosoma hernandesi is a species of lizard in the family Phrynosomatidae, and is a highly variable species. Characteristics such as colour, pattern, and size vary based on its geographical location. Short-horned lizards such as the Phrynosoma hernandesi, have settled all across North America, particularly in Saskatchewan and Alberta Canada as well as Montana, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico. The Phrynosoma hernandesi favours the desert environment and generally resides in the semi-arid environments of North and Central America, much like a majority of short-horned lizards that have settled throughout Mexico and along northeastern Sonora, Chihuahua, and Durango.

al. 2004, (Agosta et. al. 2004) critique the article by stating that there was not sufficient information that was provided for the evidence to claim that the horned lizards were adapting. The points Agosta et. al. 2004 thought that Young et. al. addressed was “evidence that selection has occurred on the trait in question” (Young et. al. 2004). An example of this would be when Young et. al. talked about how the horned lizards with the shorter length were least favored by selection therefore lizards with longer horns would have greater fitness (Young et. al. 2004). On the other hand, according to Agosta et. al. claim that Young et. al. failed to present three major points. The three major points are the “existence of a functional explanation for putative fitness differences associated with the trait”, “evidence for heritability of phenotype differences corresponding to trait variation”, and “knowledge of phylogeny such that putative adaptations can be shown to have originated in selective regimes in which they are currently advantageous” (Agosta et. al. 2004). Agosta et. al. thought the young et. al. lacked the information to support whether the horned lizards had adapted to the shrikes (Agosta et. al.

Next time you visit a Caribbean beach, take a look at the large rocks submerged under the sand. From afar, they appear identical to boulders on land; up close, however, a great deal of fissures and grooves can be seen, distinguishing it from land-based rocks. What then, could’ve formed these reef rocks if they are so different looking? Chances are, they were formed by coral, most likely of the genus Acropora. The two species of Acropora corals that reside in Caribbean reefs are Acropora Palmata (elkhorn coral) and Acropora Cervicornis (staghorn coral).. Both corals are extremely important residents of the Caribbean reef, performing many functions such as reef-building. Their highly-structured biology permits them to do so, and the ecology between

Whether it can be considered a victory or defeat there was a feeling that was already persisted.

One organism that darwin studied after his voyage to the galapagos islands is the iguana. Darwin described the iguanas as part of the lizard family. The iguanas helped Darwin figure out the secrets of his theory of evolution. Galapagos marine iguanas are the only aquatic lizard. Darwin suspected that the iguanas would be able to adapt to swim and dive down to catch their food to survive. He noticed that there were different species on different islands of the galapagos islands. These iguanas have larger limbs and larger claws so that they can cling to rocks and waves to help them survive. In general the iguanas are black in color so they can stay warm to survive. The noses of the iguanas are shorter so that they can use their sharp teeth to

I observed and learned about the little lizards that run amuck in Florida yards. Although, I do not believe that other species would disappear if this lizard were to vanish, the food supply for the birds, etc. that eat them would definitely diminish. One big question for you, after learning about the White-Tailed Deer will you still hunt them?

While on the Galápagos Islands, Darwin kept notebooks about all the species there, and he noticed the variety of tortoises on the island who were essential in explaining his theory of evolution. There are several species of tortoise present on the Galápagos Islands that are all very closely related, but slightly different. There are eleven presently surviving subspecies of Galápagos tortoises; furthermore, six of the eleven are found on different islands in the archipelago, and the other five are all found on a single island on five separate volcanoes with their own mini-ecosystems (PNAS). Although all of the species of Galápagos tortoise is different, they each have small differences that can include maximum adult size, shell shape, and the length of the neck and limbs. The tortoises of the islands are most closely related to the Chaco tortoises along the western coast of South America, and they most likely came to the Galápagos by “rafting” across the water (PNAS). Similar to the tortoises, Darwin observed that the Finches on the islands also had changed to match the environment. Spread among the islands were fourteen subspecies of finch whose