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.