Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in Southern Louisiana and there are green anoles everywhere. There are several that live on my apartment building, but yesterday I found something new! When I walk my dogs I always make a point to look for the anoles, there are a few that I can recognize and I enjoy seeing them out. Yesterday I saw a relatively large male anole aggressively displaying at a smaller (still juvie) anole across the sidewalk. But this male was crested! It did not appear to be a crest like Knight anoles have (I have only seen pics). It almost looked like someone had pinched the skin from th back of the skull to the base of the tail. The morphology was slightly different than our native anoles also. (the head was a bit coarser and more pointed, the tail was tall,not vertically compressed, but taller.

I took some pics but it will take a couple of days to post them. I caught the guy to take pics but immediately released him exactly where I found him! i would love to see some crested babies in the summer.

So the point of this long post is to ask if this guy is a hybrid or what. I have never seen other males in this area develop crests so I don't think that it is a breeding season thing. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Laura

This anole could have have been a brown crested anole. Like the ones found in Puerto Rico.

I thought brown anoles had a white ring around the eyes and were generally smaller than greens. I also thought they didn't have the color changing range of greens. I may be wrong, almost all of my anole experience has been with greens.

Laura

Here is a a site with a bunch of pictures of anoles. Icarus posted it on the message right above yours, and I think it will be usefull in determining what type your anole was.
BTW thanks for the post if you read this Icarus I have never seen many of the listed anoles before.
http://www.wildherps.com/families/Polychrotidae.html

Very large male green anoles DO develop a crest, as you describe--I think it's called a nuchal crest, and it runs from the back of the neck down the spine. It's more pronounced in some individuals than it is in others.

Oh, and I found this REALLY fascinating page:
http://notes.utk.edu/bio/greenberg.nsf/0/086a04290e49e24885256b0a00497920?OpenDocument

Thanks for your posts. I saw the same male and his crest seemed to be smaller, but still a really nice looking anole! I have never seen the crest before and I have grown up with these guys! Do they develop the crest just during breeding season or yearround? Very interesting.

Laura

It's actually controlled by muscles, and the more excited and/or angry they get, the higher the crest will rise. They have the potential year-round, but breeding season is when they're most aggressive and territorial, so that's when you'll see them raising their crest highest, most often.