Abstract
On the large islands of the Greater
Antilles, multi-species communities of Anolis lizards are composed
of species specialized to use particular habitats; similar sets of specialized
species have evolved independently on each island. We studied species of
anoles found on small Caribbean islands. Because these islands contain
at most only one other species of anole, we predicted that species on these
islands should not be as specialized as Greater Antillean species; rather,
they might be expected to exhibit a generalized morphology and a greater
breadth of habitat use. Our findings, however, do not confirm these
predictions. Lesser Antillean species do not exhibit greater breadth of
habitat use than Greater Antillean species, nor do they exhibit a generalized
morphology. Most species are ecologically and morphologically similar to
specialized trunk-crown anoles of the Greater Antilles, although some species
exhibit morphologies unlike those seen in Greater Antillean species. Among
descendants of specialized Greater Antillean species occurring on one-
or two-species islands, most descendants of trunk-crown species have diverged
relatively little, whereas several descendants of trunk-ground anoles have
diverged considerably. Consequently, we propose that ancestral species
in the Greater Antilles may have been trunk-crown anoles.