Friday, September 17, 2010

Anolis steals cover of "Evolution"

At the risk of tooting my own horn, I just wanted to share the fact that this month's issue of "Evolution" features a great photo of Anolis fowleri taken by Luke Mahler, and accompanying an article by Mahler, myself, fellow Dechronization blogger Rich Glor, and Jonathan Losos. Anolis fowleri is among the rarest anoles of Hispaniola, and this beautiful picture was obtained in August, 2008 during an expedition documented in a prior Dechronization post (authored by Rich). In our article we develop and apply new phylogenetic methods to document a progressive deceleration of the pace of evolution for some characters among the Greater Antillean anoles as ecological opportunities have become saturated in this famous adaptive radiation. "ScienceDaily" picked up a press release based on our article which can also be read here.
This month's "Evolution" is a good one (even aside from the great choice of cover art), with a number of blog-worthy articles. Look for more Dechronization posts soon.

3 comments:

Susan Perkins said...

What a handsome creature! It was fun to be there when the first A. fowleri was caught.

Unknown said...

What a beautiful Anolis! Congrats on the article and cover.

Glor said...

Searching for A. fowleri has produced many memorable moments, including many shouts of "maldito fowleri" by Dominican naturalists who have yet to find it in spite of considerable effort. Steve Poe, Paul Hime and I spent many long nights to find the first specimen I ever saw.