Here we go

As I wait for our plane to Jamaica, memories of the first time I met Leo come flooding back to me. At that time Leo was working with anoles in Puerto Rico, and he was in need of a reliable lizard-catcher. I volunteered for the job because catching lizards was one of the few things that I was good at. That was the beginning of a great friendship and a long collaboration. Over the years we have measured hundreds, most likely thousands, of dewlaps, taken habitat light spectral measurements in some very nice and not so nice places, published a few papers, and had a lot of fun!!!!!!! some times. However, we have failed to achieve our goal of elucidating the possible forces shaping the diversity of dewlap colors and patterns. Today, we are beginning our most ambitious project, or as a reviewer told us "a tour de force," in which we will be measuring dewlaps and habitat conditions of anoles from Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and a series of small islands. As a side note: between the two of us, we already have data from all of these places. However, as has been the signature of our collaboration, the data need to be collected at least 2 times before we usually agree that is correct. The field data will be combined with a series of behavioral experiments, which have already began. This is going to be a fun project.