The Fleishman Rule

Two recent events have made me reflect on "The Fleishman Rule," which I was indoctrinated as part of my collaboration with Leo and has become a corner stone of my research program.

Leo explaining "The Fleishman Rule" to Dave

 

     "The Fleishman Rule" postulates that nature likes to play mysterious tricks on researchers by giving us a little glimpse of hope and then, right before we are ready to start the victory dance, crushing us with a nice dose of reality. Naturally, this reality is usually served with some degree of frustration and second-guessing of our abilities. The rule applies regardless of how meticulously or well-designed we believe an experiment was conducted. Therefore, Leo is a strong believer that the first set of data collected in an experiment should be treated as preliminary results. Yes, there is not such a thing as an experiment that can be completed in only one attempt. However, no need to fear: "The Fleishman Rule" is what makes research exciting. First, the fun part of research is to be wrong most of the time. It would not be fun if our predictions were always correct; instead, figuring out mistakes is what pushes us to be creative and to do better jobs as scientists. As I have told my students many times, "an easy problem is not a fun problem". Second, nature is not deceiving. The initial stumble is only a test of our willingness to push harder. And if we are willing to do so by conducting the experiment a second or third time, we will achieve our goal of understanding the complex dynamics of the natural word. 
     
  

Hasta Luego

Leo and Briana, Blue Mountains

After nearly 2 weeks, our visit to Jamaica has come to an end. This was my first direct experience with Jamaican anoles, and I am positive it will not be the last one. E.E. Williams (1970's) and more recently J. Losos (1990's) suggested that the relatively small number of species found here might be related to the fact that Jamaica is a relatively "young" island. With that in mind, a couple of observations strike me about Jamaican lizards. First, compared to the other Greater Antilles, the dewlaps seem to be less differentiated between members of the same community. Second, my impression is that the thermal niches of A. garmani, A. grahami and A. valencienni are relatively broad. This might also be true for A. opalinus, which to my surprise is a "shade-loving" species that I found from sea level up to Blue Mountains. These observations beg the question: is the relatively low species diversity of Jamaican anoles due to lack of differentiation in dewlap design and/or thermal niche? In a few months, we might have an answer for how similar (or not) the dewlaps of Jamaican anoles are in color space.
Next stop on our island hopping tour: Puerto Rico.

Why Does Transmission Matter?

Today was our last day of data collection. Overall our trip was a successful one; we achieved our goal of collecting habitat spectral and dewlap data of the six dominant members of the Jamaican anole community.

Also, over the years I have stressed that the amount of light transmitted through the dewlap can contribute greatly to signal detection, by increasing overall brightness. This is particularly relevant for species that inhabit relatively shaded forests, as is the case of Anolis lineatopus. Under shaded conditions the expectation is to find relatively bright dewlaps. One mechanism to achieve high brightness is to have high transmission, which would result in a sudden bright signal against the relatively dark background. This sudden increase in brightness is known as the "Gelb Effect," which is commonly studied in humans to evaluate the role of luminance in signal perception. Because a picture is better than a thousand words, the above photograph of a male A. lineatopus flashing its dewlap is a nice illustration of the Gelb Effect. Note: if I had taken this picture using a flash, the Gelb Effect would not be present.

Planting seeds of knowledge

Today I had the honor of giving an informal talk about our research to a group of children -- approximately twenty kids, age range from five to seven -- participating in an Eco Camp here at Discovery Bay. It was great; the kids were really excited to learn about lizards, which is not typical in Jamaica. Most Jamaicans, particularly woman, are extremely afraid of lizards and would not get close to us while we are handling them. My talk was mostly about the natural history of the Jamaican anoles, including the very famous "croc lizard" (Anolis valencienni) and the "green lizard" (Anolis garmani). For the kids, the highlights of the talk were the videos of anoles displaying and my imitation of a head-bob display. All I have to say is that Jamaica has a nice crop of potential biologists.

Robin's Bay vs. Discovery Bay

For the past two days, we have been sleeping in Discovery Bay & collecting data in the hills above Priory. Although we have experienced some success in the field, I must say that I prefer the tranquility of Robin's Bay (see picture above) to the hustle and bustle of Disco Bay & its surroundings. Maybe I should be grateful for the supermarket, Coca-Cola in glass bottles, and the Ultimate Jerk Center, that can be found on this part of the island, but those are all just luxuries that can never take the place of a calm and relaxed atmosphere. Robin's Bay deserves respect, man.

Trip Update

We just finished our five-day stop at Robin's Bay, where we stayed in what the locals call the "the concrete monstrosity," or as Leo likes to say, the setting of The Shining. The hotel was a gigantic "resort" in which we were the only customers for the entire time, and we consumed all their food and beverages, including the delicious and extremely salty "smoked pork chops" and veggie chunks (a.k.a. vegetarian goat).

In terms of research, we collected habitat light measurements and dewlap spectral data on six species. There are only seven species of anoles in Jamaica, so we are very pleased with our sampling. A few personal notes: A. valencienni is extremely common and can be found perching not only in twigs, but also on fence-posts in cow pastures and Heliconia leaves. I am positive that valencienni should not be in the exclusive family of twig anoles.


Also, A. garmani is as common as any trunk-ground anole in the other islands of the Greater Antilles. This might explain why Trivers used garmani for his very famous study on size dimorphism and sexual selection in anoles (published in Evolution 1976). Garmani also has a relatively small dewlap, nothing to be proud of for a giant anole.

Finally, after twisting Leo's arm, we had the chance to visit the Blue Mountains, home of some of the world's most expensive coffee. Leo was not sold on the idea of driving up a relatively narrow road without guardrails, particularly with a Puerto Rican at the wheel. I have to say, the road can be a little treacherous, and in some instances my "friends" got out of the car to "take photos" while I drove through some very narrow stretches. Anolis opalinus was very common along the road and quite beautiful.

Eureka !!!!!!

After years of building gadgets, we may have hit the jackpot. It is too early to declare victory; however, we might be getting very close to finally having a reliable field method for measuring the reflection and transmission of anole dewlaps, as illustrated by the photo of A. valencienni. We have also collected spectral data for A. lineotopus, A. grahami, A. opalinus, and A. garmani.

The Jamaica Team

After a long day of traveling, the team is finally here and assembled: Leo "El Jefesisimo", Brianna, Dave, and myself. Out of respect for the elderly, Leo is our "leader" and my job is to catch lizards. Basically nothing has changed for decades.

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.