Climate and elevation influence on the thermal traits of Anolis lizards (Squamata: Dactyloidae) from central and southern Mexico
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9079.v25i1p51-83Keywords:
Body temperatures, Climatic variables, Critical temperatures, Ecophysiology, Selected temperatures, ThermoregulationAbstract
Environmental temperature is a key abiotic factor influencing the distribution patterns of squamate reptiles. The lizard genus Anolis comprises approximately 400 species, 60 of which occur in Mexico, where they inhabit tropical forests, high mountain habitats, and semi-arid regions. In this study, we document the body temperatures (Tb), selected temperatures (Tsel), and thermal tolerances (CTmin and CTmax) of 17 species of Mexican Anolis from different habitat types. Additionally, we determined whether differences occur in thermal patterns among localities, species, sizes, sexes, and seasons. Finally, we estimated whether Tb and Tsel could be explained by climatic variables and elevation using regression analyses with generalized linear mixed models (GLMM). We observed differences in Tsel and CTmax among localities, whereas CTmin appeared to be independent of the habitat. We found that the elevation, minimum temperature of the coldest month, precipitation and size explained variation in Tb. Tsel was associated with elevation, minimum temperature of the coldest month and precipitation; CTmin with precipitation; and CTmax with annual mean temperature, minimum temperature of the coldest month and maximum temperature of warmer month. These findings highlight both species specific adaptations and environmental variation when evaluating the thermal ecology of Anolis lizards, especially in the face of ongoing climate change.
Downloads
References
Ahmadzadeh, F., M. Flecks, M. A. Carretero, W. Böhme, C. Ilgaz, J. O. Engler, D. J. Harris, N. Üzüm, and D. Rödder. 2013. Rapid lizard radiation lacking niche conservatism: ecological diversification within acomplex landscape. Journal of Biogeography 40: 1807–1818.
Angilletta Jr., M. J. 2009. Thermal Adaptation: A Theoretical and Empirical Synthesis. First Publ. Oxford University Press, Oxford New York. pp. 289.
Arenas-Moreno, D. M., R. A. Lara-Reséndiz, S. F. Domínguez-Guerrero, A. G. Pérez-Delgadillo, F. J. Muñoz-Nolasco, P. Galina-Tessaro, and F. R. Méndez-de la Cruz. 2021. Thermoregulatory strategies of three reclusive lizards (genus Xantusia) from the Baja California peninsula, Mexico, under current and future microenvironmental temperatures. Journal of Experimental Zoology 335: 499–511.
Badillo-Saldaña, L. M., A. García-Rosales, and A. Ramírez-Bautista. 2022. Influence of microhabitat use on morphology traits of three species of the Anolis sericeus complex (Squamata: Dactyloidae) in Mexico. Zoology 152: e126003.
Birt, R. A., R. Powell, and B. D. Greene. 2001. Natural history of Anolis barkeri: a semiaquatic lizard from southern Mexico. Journal of Herpetology 35: 161–166. Cabrera-Guzmán, E. and V. Hugo Reynoso. 2010. Use of sleeping perches by the lizard Anolis uniformis (Squamata: Polychrotidae) in the fragmented tropical rainforest at Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 81: 921–924.
Caetano, G. H., J. C. Santos, L. B. Godinho, V. H. Cavalcante, L. M. Diele‐Viegas, P. H. Campelo, L. F. Martins, A. F. S. Oliveira, J. M. Alvarenga, H. C. Wiederhecker, V. Novaes e Silva, F. P. Werneck, D. B. Miles, G. R. Colli, and B. R. Sinervo. 2020. Time of activity is a better predictor of the distribution of a tropical lizard than pure environmental temperatures. Oikos 129: 953–963. Davis, W. B. 1954. Three new anoles from Mexico. Herpetologica 10: 1–6.
Díaz-Marín, C. A., R. Luría-Manzano, G. Gutiérrez-Mayén, and A. Ramírez-Bautista. 2021. Seasonal variation in thermal ecology and microhabitat use of Anolis carlliebi (Squamata: Dactyloidae) from a xeric scrubland in central Mexico. Ichthyology and Herpetology 109: 598–607.
Domínguez-Guerrero, S. F., B. L. Bodensteiner, A. Pardo-Ramírez, D. R. Aguillón-Gutierrez, F. R. Méndez-de la Cruz, and M. M. Muñoz. 2021. Thermal physiology responds to interannual temperature shifts in a montane horned lizard, Phrynosoma orbiculare. Journal of Experimental Zoology 335: 136–145.
Domínguez-Guerrero, S. F., F. R. Méndez-de la Cruz, N. L. Manríquez-Morán, M. E. Olson, P. Galina-Tessaro, D. M. Arenas-Moreno, A. Bautista-del-Moral, A. Benítez-Villaseñor, H. Gadsden, R. A. Lara-Reséndiz, C. A. Maciel-Mata, F. J. Muñoz-Nolasco, R. Santos-Bibiano, J. H. Valdez-Villavicencio, G. A. Woolrich-Piña, and M. M. Muñoz. 2022. Exceptional parallelisms characterize the evolutionary transition to live birth in phrynosomatid lizards. Nature Communications 13: e2881.
Domínguez-Guerrero, S. F., M. M. Muñoz, D. de Jesús Pasten- Téllez, D. M. Arenas-Moreno, L. A. Rodríguez-Miranda, N. L. Manríquez-Morán, and F. R. Méndez de la Cruz. 2019. Interactions between thermoregulatory behavior and physiological acclimatization in a wild lizard population. Journal of Thermal Biology 79: 135–143.
Fick, S. E. and R. J. Hijmans. 2017. WorldClim 2: new 1-km spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas. International Journal of Climatology 37: 4302–4315.
Fierro-Estrada, N., D. M. Arenas-Moreno, R. A. Lara-Reséndiz, F. J. Muñoz-Nolasco, M. A. Altamirano-Benavides, F. J. Gandarilla-Aizpuro, R. Gómez Trejo-Pérez, L. E. Lozano-Aguilar, R. Santos-Bibiano, D. Rueda-Córdova, P. Buitrón-López, and F. R. Méndez-de la Cruz. 2022. Ecología térmica de la lagartija de lava de Santa Cruz (Microlophus indefatigabilis) de Galápagos, Ecuador: implicaciones del fenómeno de El Niño. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 93: e933895.
Fitch, H. S. 1978. Two new anoles (Reptilia: Iguanidae) from Oaxaca with comments on other Mexican species. Milwaukee Public Museum Monograph 20: 1–15.
Fitch, H. S. and R. W. Henderson. 1976. A field study of the rock anoles (Reptilia, Lacertilia, Iguanidae) of Southern Mexico. Journal of Herpetology 10: 303–311.
Florentino-Melchor, L. I. 2015. Ecología térmica de la lagartija microendémica Anolis gadovii Boulenger, 1905 (Sauria: Dactyloidae) en la localidad de Palo Gordo, Guerrero. Unpublished B.Sc. Thesis. Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Chilpancingo de los Bravo, Guerrero, Mexico.
Gandia, A. C., R. A. Bosch, C. A. Mancina, and A. Herrel. 2023. Climatic variation along the distributional range in Cuban Anolis lizards: species and ecomorphs under future scenarios of climate change. Global Ecology and Conservation 42: e02401.
Gilchrist G. W. 1995. Specialists and generalists in changing environments. I. Fitness landscapes of thermal sensitivity. American Naturalist 146: 252–270.
Gray, L., R. Meza-Lázaro, S. Poe, and A. N. M. de Oca. 2016. A new species of semiaquatic Anolis (Squamata: Dactyloidae) from Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico. Herpetological Journal 26: 253–262. Gvoždík, L. 2018. Just what is the thermal niche? Oikos127: 1701–1710.
Hertz, P. E. and R. B. Huey. 1981. Compensation for altitudinal changes in the thermal environment by some Anolis lizards on Hispaniola. Ecology 62: 515–521.
Huey, R. B. and P. E. Hertz. 1984. Is a jack-of-all-temperatures a master of none? Evolution 38: 441–444.
Huey, R. B. and M. Slatkin. 1976. Cost and benefits of lizard thermoregulation. Quarterly Review of Biology 51: 363–384.
Huey, R.B., M. R. Kearney, A. Krockenberger, J. A. Holtum, M. Jess, and S. E. Williams. 2012. Predicting organismal vulnerability to climate warming: roles of behaviour, physiology and adaptation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 367: 1665–1679.
Kaufmann, J. S. and A. F. Bennett. 1989. The effect of temperature and thermal acclimation on locomotor performance in Xantusia vigilis, the desert night lizard. Physiological Zoology 62: 1047–1058.
Kearney, M. and W. P. Porter. 2004. Mapping the fundamental niche: physiology, climate, and the distribution of a nocturnal lizard. Ecology 85: 3119–3131.
Koehler, G., R. G. T. Pérez, C. B. P. Petersen, and F. R. M. de la Cruz. 2014. A revision of the Mexican Anolis (Reptilia, Squamata, Dactyloidae) from the Pacific versant west of the Isthmus de Tehuantepec in the states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Puebla, with the description of six new species. Zootaxa 3862: 1–210.
Lara-Reséndiz, R. A., D. M. Arenas-Moreno, E. Beltrán- Sánchez, W. Gramajo, J. Verdugo-Molina, W. C. Sherbrooke, and F. R. Méndez-De la Cruz. 2015. Selected body temperature of nine species of Mexican horned lizards (Phrynosoma). Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad 86: 275–278.
Lara-Reséndiz, R. A., A. H. Díaz de la Vega-Pérez, and P. Charruau. 2013. Anolis uniformis (Lesser Scaly Anole). Selected body temperature. Herpetological Review 44: 662.
Lara-Reséndiz, R. A., P. Galina-Tessaro, B. Sinervo, D. B. Miles, J. H. Valdez-Villavicencio, F. I. Valle-Jiménez, and F. R. Méndez-de La Cruz. 2021. How will climate change impact fossorial lizard species? Two examples in the Baja California Peninsula. Journal of Thermal Biology 95: 102811.
Logan, M. L., C. E. Montgomery, S. M. Boback, R. N. Reed, and J. A. Campbell. 2012. Divergence in morphology, but not habitat use, despite low genetic differentiation among insular populations of the lizard Anolis lemurinus in Honduras. Journal of Tropical Ecology 28: 215–222.
Logan, M. L., R. K. Huynh, R. A. Precious, and R. G. Calsbeek. 2013. The impact of climate change measured at relevant spatial scales: new hope for tropical lizards. Global Change Biology 19: 3093–310.
Macdonald, K. J., T. S. Doherty, B. A. Hradsky, and D. A. Driscoll. 2025. Disturbance and ecosystem management interact to shape reptile body condition. Animal Conservation 28: 303–314.
Martínez-Grimaldo, R. E. 2013. Estructura del nicho ecológico de las especies del grupo Anolis subocularis (Squamata: Polychrotidae). Unpublished M.Sc. Thesis. Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico.
Martínez-Méndez, N., O. Mejía, J. Ortega, and F. Méndez-de la Cruz. 2019. Climatic niche evolution in the viviparous Sceloporus torquatus group (Squamata: Phrynosomatidae). PeerJ 6: e6192.
Medina, M., J. B. Fernández, P. Charruau, F. M. de la Cruz, and N. Ibargüengoytía. 2016. Vulnerability to climate change of Anolis allisoni in the mangrove habitats of Banco Chinchorro Islands, Mexico. Journal of Thermal Biology 58: 8–14.
Morales-Aguilar, J. M. 2023. Ecología térmica y uso de hábitat de la lagartija microendémica de Guerrero: Anolis taylori (Squamata: Dactyloidae). Unpublished B.Sc. Thesis. Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Mexico.
Muñoz, M. M. 2022. The Bogert effect, a factor in evolution. Evolution 76 (s1): 49–66.
Muñoz, M. M., L. O. Frishkoff, J. Pruett, and D. L. Mahler. 2023. Evolution of a model system: New insights from the study of Anolis lizards. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 54: 475–503.
Muñoz, M. M., M. A. Stimola, A. C. Algar, A. Conover, A. J. Rodriguez, M. A. Landestoy, G. S. Bakken, and J. B. Losos. 2014. Evolutionary stasis and lability in thermal physiology in a group of tropical lizards. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Biological Sciences 281: e20132433.
Muñoz-Nolasco, F. J., D. M. Arenas-Moreno, A. Bautista-del Moral, D. A. Brindis-Badillo, and F. R. Méndez-de la Cruz. 2022. Thermal biology of a population of Xenosaurus newmanorum (Squamata: Xenosauridae) from Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, Mexico: Do they actively thermoregulate? Revista Latinoamericana de Herpetología 5: 132–141.
Pavón-Vázquez, C. J., I. Solano-Zavaleta, and L. N. Gray. 2014. Morphological variation and natural history of Anolis duellmani (Squamata: Dactyloidae). Mesoamerican Herpetology 1: 146–153.
Pérez-Delgadillo, A. G., R. A. Lara-Reséndiz, J. H. Valdez-Villavicencio, D. M. Arenas-Moreno, S. F. Domínguez-Guerrero, P. Galina-Tessaro, and F. R. Méndez-de la Cruz. 2021. Thermal ecology of a thermophilic lizard Callisaurus draconoides through a latitudinal gradient. Journal of Arid Environments 195: e104634.
Peterson, A. T. 2001. Predicting species’ geographic distributions based on ecological niche modeling. Condor 103: 599–605.
Pianka, E. R., L. J. Vitt, N. Pelegrin, D. B. Fitzgerald, and K. O. Winemiller. 2017. Toward a periodic table of niches, or exploring the lizard niche hypervolume. American Naturalist 190: 601–616.
Poe, S., A. Nieto-Montes de Oca, O. Torres-Carvajal, K. De Queiroz, J. A. Velasco, B. Truett, L. N. Gray, M. J. Ryan, G. Köhler, F. Ayala-Varela, and I. Latella. 2017. A phylogenetic, biogeographic, and taxonomic study of all extant species of Anolis (Squamata; Iguanidae). Systematic Biology 66: 663–697.
Pontes-da-Silva, E., W. E. Magnusson, B. Sinervo, G. H. Caetano, D. B. Miles, G. R. Colli, L. M. Diele-Viegas, J. Fenker, J. C. Santos, and F. P. Werneck. 2018. Extinction risks forced by climatic change and intraspecific variation in the thermal physiology of a tropical lizard. Journal of Thermal Biology 73: 50–60.
Prates, I., P. R. Melo-Sampaio, K. De Queiroz, A. C. Carnaval, M. T. Rodrigues, and L. de Oliveira Drummond. 2020. Discovery of a new species of Anolis lizards from Brazil and its implications for the historical biogeography of montane Atlantic Forest endemics. Amphibia-Reptilia 41: 87–103.
Quintero, I. and J. J. Wiens. 2013. Rates of projected climate change dramatically exceed past rates of climatic niche evolution among vertebrate species. Ecology Letters 16: 1095–1103.
R Core Team. 2022. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Version 4.2.0. URL https://www.R-project.org.
Ramírez-Bautista, A. and M. Benabib. 2001. Perch height of the arboreal lizard Anolis nebulosus (Sauria: Polychrotidae) from a tropical dry forest of Mexico: effect of the reproductive season. Copeia 2001: 187–193.
Ramirez-Bautisa, A., V. Mata-Silva, and L. Oliver-Lopez. 2002. Reproductive data for Anolis quercorum, a little- known anole from Zapotitlán de las Salinas, Puebla, México. Herpetological Review 33: 269–270.
Ramírez-Bautista, A. and L. J. Vitt.1997. Reproduction in the lizard Anolis nebulosus (Polychrotidae) from the Pacific coast of Mexico. Herpetologica 53: 423–431.
Ruibal R. 1961. Thermal relations of five species of tropical lizards. Evolution 15: 98–111.
Salazar, J. C., M. del Rosario-Castañeda, G. A. Londono, B. L. Bodensteiner, and M. M. Muñoz. 2019. Physiological evolution during adaptive radiation: a test of the island effect in Anolis lizards. Evolution 73: 1241–1252.
Salazar, J. C., G. A. Londoño, M. M. Muñoz, D. B. Miles, and M. D. R. Castañeda. 2025. The Andes are a driver of physiological diversity in Anolis lizards. Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean Society 4: kzae040.
Shine R. and T. Madsen. 1996. Is thermoregulation unimportant for most reptiles? An example using water pythons Liasis fuscus in tropical Australia. Physiological Zoology 69: 252−269.
Sinervo, B., F. Méndez-de-la-Cruz, D. B. Miles, B. Heulin, E. Bastiaans, M. Villagrán-Santa Cruz, R. Lara-Reséndiz, N. Martínez-Méndez, M. L. Calderón-Espinosa, R. N. Meza-Lázaro, H. Gadsden, L. J. Avila, M. Morando, I. J. De la Riva, P. Victoriano Sepulveda, C. F. Rocha, N. Ibargüengoytía, C. Aguilar Puntriano, M. Massot, and J. W. Sites Jr. 2010. Erosion of lizard diversity by climate change and altered thermal niches. Science 328: 894–899.
Strangas, M. L., C. A. Navas, M. T. Rodrigues, and A. C.Carnaval. 2019. Thermophysiology, microclimates, and species distributions of lizards in the mountains of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Ecography 42: 354–364.
Tattersall, G. J., B. J. Sinclair, P. C. Withers, P. A. Fields, F. Seebacher, C. E. Cooper, and S. K. Maloney. 2012. Coping with thermal challenges: physiological adaptations to environmental temperatures. Comprehensive Physiology 2: 2151–2202.
Taylor, E. N., L. M. Diele-Viegas, E. J. Gangloff, J. M. Hall, B. Halpern, M. D. Massey, D. Rödder, N. Rollinson, S. Spears, B.-J. Sun, R. S. Telemeco. 2021. The thermal ecology and physiology of reptiles and amphibians: a user’s guide. Journal of Experimental Zoology, Part A, Ecological and Integrative Physiology 335: 13–44.
Thonis, A. E. and B. C. Lister. 2019. Predicting climate-induced distributional shifts for Puerto Rican anoles. Copeia 107: 262–269.
Title, P. O., S. Singhal, M. C. Grundler, G. C. Costa, R. A. Pyron, T. J. Colston, M. R. Grundler, I. Prates, N. Stepanova, M. E. Jones, L. B. Q. Cavalcanti, G. R. Colli, N. Di-Poï, S. C. Donnellan, C. Moritz, D. O. Mesquita, E. R. Pianka, S. A. Smith, L. J. Vitt, and D. L. Rabosky. 2024. The macroevolutionary singularity of snakes. Science 383: 918–923.
Uetz, P., P. Freed, and J. Hošek (eds.). 2025. The Reptile Database: An Online Reference. Electronic Database accessible ate http://www.reptile-database.org. Captured on 17 September 2025.
Woolrich-Piña, G. A., G. R. Smith, J. A. Lemos-Espinal, and J. P. Ramírez-Silva. 2015. Do gravid female Anolis nebulosus thermoregulate differently than males and non-gravid females? Journal of Thermal Biology 52: 84–89.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 ESALQ-USP
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All material originally published in Phyllomedusa belongs to Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz - Universidade de São Paulo. All contents are under a license of Creative Commons BY-NC-ND.
Impact Factor (JCR): 0.600
CiteScore: 1.0