In August 2020, I recently published my first first-author paper about urban Anolis lizard claws! I have previously written about my research after doing field work and presenting at my university’s science symposium. I’m excited to report that the results are finally out!
In our paper, The Finer Points of Urban Adaptation, myself and my coauthors (Kevin Aviles-Rodriguez, Dr. Travis Hagey, and Dr. Kristin Winchell) showed how claw shape changes in rthe context of urbanization across five species of lizards in the Caribbean. This image shows the study sites across the islands as well as the different species of lizards that were caught on each island.
From there, we first establish the different habitats in the city versus the forest: Surfaces in the city that lizards perched on were largely anthropogenic, and much smoother than what forest populations were used. This figure shows the differences between the habitats: 
This provides the jumping-off point for our next idea: The surfaces that lizards are exposed to may serve as a selection pressure for different claw shapes.
This hypothesis turned out to be supported: We found that urban lizards undergo a shift in overall claw shape in the same direction across the five species, but with overall different magnitudes. In general, urban lizards have claws that are taller at the base, less curved, less pointed, and shorter in length than forest lizards. In addition, urban populations had larger variance in shape, suggesting that there may be niche expansion or relaxed selection rather than directional selection. The figure below shows the mean consensus shape of the claws across species.
Our results are important because although claws may seem like a small piece of the urban evolution puzzle, they are a critical adaptation to locomotion in novel and ever-changing habitats.
The process of writing the paper was exciting and novel. It was my first time writing an official academic article. Writing this was unlike the essays and lab reports from undergraduate biology, and adapting to an entirely new style of writing was somewhat challenging. In addition, the publication process was daunting as we went through rejections, revisions, and peer review. Taken together, it was a fantastic learning experience and an exciting step toward my dream of becoming a scientist!
If this article piqued your interest, the full text of the paper can be found here!
- Recap: The Finer Points of Urban Adaptation - January 29, 2021
- Video Recommendation: The City Animal Tier List! - March 10, 2020
- Urban Observation of the Week: A Catalogue of Urban Animals in Gamboa, Panama - September 4, 2019