Anolis cristatellus

This species was first scientifically described as Anolis cristatellus by André Marie Constant Duméril and Gabriel Bibron in 1837 using a number of specimens sent to Paris by Auguste Plée from Martinique. They also had an additional specimen supposedly from French Guiana, although these two authors doubted the veracity of this provenance, and a further female specimen found in the collection of the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle, labelled by Nicolaus Michael Oppel as Anolis porphyreus, apparently a nomen nudum. Georges Cuvier had first examined the specimens sent by Plée, and dubbed the lizard le petit Anolis a crête in the second tome of his massive work, Le Règne Animal, a few years before, stating that the taxon Anders Sparrman had called Lacerta bimaculata was a synonym of this species. Duméril and Bibron were not in agreement with this observation, however, and described Sparrman's lizard as A. leachii. For the next century and a half the taxonomy remained stable and uncontroversial, until Craig Guyer and Jay M. Savage attempted to split the very large genus Anolis in 1986 based on skeletal, immunology and karyological datasets used together in a type of cladistics method called "successive weighted characters", thus moving most species into a new very large genus called Norops, and moving Anolis cristatellus into the genus Ctenonotus. Following Guyer and Savage, Albert Schwartz and Robert W. Henderson also classified this species as Ctenonotus cristatellus in 1988. most herpetologists chose not to follow this taxonomic interpretation, and within a decade this new nomenclature was seen as a synonym. (this islet is now covered in giant apartment buildings), but by 1988 it appeared that many of the populations occurring on the islands in between the two taxa were intermediate between the two taxa. Schwartz and Henderson recorded such intermediate populations on the islands of Cayo Icacos, Cayo la Llave, Cayo Palominitos (offshore of Isla Palominos) and Isla Pineros. A larger island in this area, Culebra, may also have somewhat intermediate specimens. Type The syntypes for the nominate form, MNHN2353 and MNHN2447, are housed at the ''Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle''. It was stated by Duméril and Bibron in 1837 to have been sent from Martinique, but the species does not occur on this island. The Reptile Database, however, records a holotype, MCZ8306 (also catalogued as MCZ2171), being kept at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. The subspecies wileyae has a holotype, UMMZ73648, kept at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History along with a number of paratypes; although according to Schwartz and Henderson in 1991 the holotype is MCZ34792. ==Common names==

In its native Puerto Rico the vernacular names lagartijo común or common anole are used. Another Spanish name is lagartija crestada. and the common Puerto Rican anole, or the somewhat incorrect chameleon. ==Description==

(BVI) (BVI) Compared to many other anoles, it is a stocky, muscular and aggressive, although it is a small (compared to Central American anoles) to moderately-sized species (compared to insular Caribbean anoles). Measurements in 2015 found the animals to have a snout-vent length (SVL) which can reach to in males, and up to in females, although most females are much smaller. The colour is variable; the head and body are bronze to greenish grey, with faint and irregular brownish spots, and the belly is greenish-yellow and the throat is whitish. The iris is dark brown. and can shift colour in reaction to its behavioural state. They are thus often referred to as 'chameleons' in many places because of their ability to change colour, but they are not related to true chameleons. Similar species Many other anoles also have a crest on their tails, but this is one of the few species in which it is always erect, and where the tail is compressed. The pattern of the scales are also diagnostic, as shown by Schwartz and Henderson in 1991. ==Distribution==

Anolis cristatellus cristatellus Native The nominate subspecies is native to and found throughout Puerto Rico, including some smaller and associated off-shore islands. as well as in nature parks. It is found on the associated off-shore islands of Caja de Muertos, It is known from a number of localities in Limón Province and one in Cartago Province. Anolis cristatellus wileyae This subspecies is found on islands off the eastern coast of Puerto Rico, such as Culebra, Culebrita and Vieques, and also on the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. ==Ecology==

Habitat This anole is found in almost all habitats throughout Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, from open fields to rainforest, except some of the high altitude elfin forests in the mountainous regions of Puerto Rico. Henderson and Powell (2009) record the Acanthocephalan worm of the Plagiorhynchidae family, Lueheia inscripta. ==Relationship to humans==

They are sold globally in the pet trade. ==Conservation==

This is an extremely common species in Puerto Rico, and it is believed that it has likely become more common over the last few centuries as humans have converted much more of the island to the type of habitat that this species prefers. According to Malhotra et al. in 2007 its introduction to the island of Dominica threatens Anolis oculatus, an anole endemic to the island, because within a few years of being introduced it had begun to supplant A. oculatus in the dry and urban southwestern coastal area in the surrounds of the capital Roseau. Within this area the Dominican anole had become absent or rare, but it was thought that A. cristatellus might not spread into, or become so dominant, in the moist forests or mountainous areas in the rural areas elsewhere on the island. Elsewhere there is no recorded evidence of damaging effects on other Anolis species or native ecosystems. It has been recorded as present in the following protected areas: • Reserva Natural Caja de Muertos, Ponce, Puerto Rico, USA. • Guánica State Forest, Puerto Rico, USA. • Los Tres Picachos State Forest, Puerto Rico, USA. • Luquillo Experimental Forest within El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico, USA. • Reserva Forestal de Maricao, Puerto Rico, USA. • Virgin Islands National Park, Saint John, United States Virgin Islands, USA. ==See also==