Parasite manipulation study out in Journal of Experimental Zoology A

Tyler Wittman led a new study in JEZ A showing that custom gelling injections of ivermectin that he developed can be used to remove nematode parasites in wild anoles. The study, which was also part of Torun Carlson's Distinguished Majors Project, shows that the experimental removal of two nematode parasites increases juvenile growth rate as well as the sprint speed and mating success of adult males. Rachana Bhave developed the new method that we used to assay mating success.
Evolution Education returns to Mountain Lake

In July 2022, Evolution Education hosted teachers from around the country at Mountain Lake Biological Station for a week-long professional development workshop focused on data collection, analysis, and graphing with DataClassroom. Thanks to MLBS, NSF, Aaron Reedy at DataClassroom, and all of the hard-working and enthusiastic teachers who made it such a fun workshop!
Evolution of hormone-phenotype couplings 

In a new paper in Hormones and Behavior, we review potential mechanisms for the evolution of hormone-phenotype couplings and hormone-genome interactions. New analyses by Tyler Wittman provide the first direct evidence for additive genetic variance in phenotypic responsiveness to a fixed hormonal signal, while new analyses by Matthew Hale and Chris Robinson explore hormonally mediated gene expression via coexpression networks and in silico genomic predictions of hormone response elements.​
Integrating effects of age, sex, and hormones on transcription

In a new paper led by Matthew Hale, we show that ontogenetic changes in gene expression are much more pronounced in male than in female anoles. Many of these ontogenetic changes also underlie the development of sex-biased gene expression as anoles mature. We also show that age- and sex-biased genes tend to be responsive to testosterone, suggesting that sexual divergence in sex steroids underlies sex differences in expression.​
New paper measuring natural selection on anole sperm phenotypes 

In one of our biggest and longest-running lab collaborations to date, Ariel Kahrl, Matthew Kustra, Aaron Reedy, Heidi Seears, Rachana Bhave, and Bob Cox teamed up to provide the first in a series of papers using our new GT-seq pipeline to study natural and sexual selection in Florida anoles. Ariel led the study, which revealed that reproductive success is related to sperm count, but not to sperm morphology or velocity. We're also excited that Ariel was invited to publish this paper in a special issue of Cells honoring Geoff Parker, the founder of sperm competition theory!
New paper in Evolution Letters: hormonal pleiotropy structures genetic covariance in brown anoles

Tyler Wittman and Chris Robinson, plus coauthors Joel McGlothlin (Virginia Tech) and Bob Cox, have a paper in Evolution Letters providing the first empirical demonstration that hormones shape patterns of genetic variance and covariance. The figure on the left shows that genetic correlations between females and males are naturally low for many aspects of size and ornamentation (red symbols), but these genetic correlations increase when females develop under elevated testosterone levels (purple symbols).

Read the blog post from Evolution Letters
New paper on survival costs of parasitism in Proc Roy Soc B

Tyler Wittman published a meta-analysis in Proc Roy Soc B showing that mating system influences whether female or male hosts experience greater fitness costs of parasite infection. Across 64 species spanning a variety of vertebrate and invertebrate lineages, parasites tend to reduce survival to a greater extent in males than in females under polygynous and promiscuous mating systems. However, when monogamy evolves, the balance shifts so that female hosts suffer a higher survival cost of parasitism than males.

Tyler's PhD research uses experimental removal of parasites to explore the fitness consequences of parasite infection in wild brown anoles.
New PBZ paper on population differences in Anolis metabolism 

Former lab member John David Curlis, currently a PhD student at University of Michigan, published his undergraduate research showing that genetically based differences in male growth and sexual size dimorphism in two Bahamian populations of brown anoles are associated with underlying differences in resting metabolism of males, but not females. The project was a collaboration with Bob and former postdoc Christian Cox, now an assistant professor at Florida International University.

​One of John David's many amazing photographs is also featured on the ​PBZ cover
5th Evolution Education Teacher Workshop 

In July 2019, we hosted the fifth annual Evolution Education Teacher Workshop at Mountain Lake Biological Station. Thanks again to NSF and all participants for your enthusiasm and ideas! Also, check out our teaching resources for K-12 science educators.

Note: we had to cancel our workshops in 2020-2021 due to COVID-19, but we plan to return in summer 2022 with lots of new content in collaboration with DataClassroom
New paper on Anolis sperm evolution in JEB 

Check out the Journal of Evolutionary Biology for a new paper in which Ariel Kahrl characterizes the evolution of sperm morphology and testis size across Anolis species, in collaboration with Bob and Michele Johnson at Trinity University. The upshot is that testis size evolves much more quickly than sperm morphology across anoles.

Read a summary of the study on Anole Annals and check out Ariel's cover photo
New grant on evolution of sex-biased genes 

In collaboration with Christian Cox (Georgia Southern and now Florida International University) and Henry John-Alder (Rutgers University), September 2018 marked the beginning a new NSF award to study the evolution of sex-biased gene expression across different fence and spiny lizards exhibiting evolutionary reversals in sexual dimorphism.
4th Evolution Education Teacher Workshop at MLBS

In July 2018, we hosted the fourth Evolution Education Teacher Workshop at Mountain Lake Biological Station. The highlight of the week was a keynote address by Liz Schultheis, field ecologist and creator of the awesome Data Nuggets program! Thanks to NSF and all participants for your enthusiasm and ideas!

Check out our teaching resources for K-12 science educators
Congratulations to Cara, Matt, and Aaron! 

Congratulations to 2018 lab graduates Cara Giordano (BS), Matthew Kustra (BS), and Dr. Aaron Reedy (PhD)!

​It's the end of an era for the anole field crew...
Quantitative genetics of Anolis thermal physology in ​Proc Roy Soc B

The May 2018 issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B features a new paper in which Bob and former UVA undergraduates Albert Chung and John David Curlis collaborated with Mike Logan and several other researchers to characterize the heritability of a variety of behavioral and performance measures related to thermal physiology in anole populations from Eleuthera and Great Exuma in the Bahamas.

Check out Mike's summary of the project on Anole Annals
Aaron Reedy receives NSF postdoctoral award

Congratualtions to Aaron for securing NSF funding to extend his dissertation research on anoles into a new area by exploring sex differences in aging and senescense in the wild! Aaron will continue to work on our Florida islands in collaboration with Tonia Schwartz at Auburn University, while broadening participation in science by developing DataClassroom software for schools.

​Check out Aaron's website for more details
Cara Giordano's Katz Symposium talk wins first place

Congratulations to Cara Giordano ('18) for winning the award for best talk at the 2018 Richard D. Katz Symposium for the Biology Distinguished Majors program! Cara's talk on "Age- and condition-dependent expression of ornament coloration in the brown anole" was the culmination of her three years of fieldwork in Florida! 
Matt Kustra receives NSF predoctoral fellowship

Congratulations to Matthew Kustra ('18) for winning a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation! Matt's award will support his graduate research at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In the meantime, he's finishing up a paper exploring sperm phenotypes of anoles as they relate to variation in population density and operational sex ratio.
Evolution Education publishes teacher collaboration 

The August 2017 issue of Behavioral Ecology features a new study in which Aaron and Bob worked with Evolution Education Teacher Fellows Brandon Pope and Nick Kiriazis, plus UVA undergrads Cara Giordano and Cheyenne Sams, to study territorial aggression in male and female anoles. Despite their small size, females aggresively defend their territories against intruders!
3rd Evolution Education Teacher Workshop at MLBS

In July 2017, we hosted the third Evolution Education Teacher Workshop at Mountain Lake Biological Station. The highlight of the week was a keynote address by Louise Mead, Education Director for the NSF BEACON Center for the Study of Evolution in Action. Thanks to NSF and all participants for your enthusiasm and ideas!

Check out our teaching resources for K-12 science educators
New paper on Anolis dewlap genetics in J Evolutionary Biology

The July 2017 issue of Journal of Evolutionary Biology features a new paper in which Bob, grad student Robin Costello, undergrad Ben Camber, and Joel McGlothlin (Virginia Tech) used four years of data from our breeding colony to characterize the quantitative-genetic basis of sexual dimorphism in brown anole dewlaps. The paper includes full G (including B) matrices for dewlap size and color, along with the debut of "sexually antagonistic skewers".

Check out the JEB cover photo by former lab member John David Curlis!
New paper on gene expression in American Naturalist

The March 2017 issue of American Naturalist features a new paper in which Bob teamed up with Christian Cox (Georgia Southern), Joel McGlothlin (Virginia Tech) and Todd Castoe's lab (University of Texas, Arlington) to explore how hormonally mediated changes in sex-biased gene expression may help to break down intersexual genetic correlations and facilitate the evolution of sex differences.

Read a brief synopsis on Anole Annals or UVA Today
Anole gut microbiota featured in Molecular Ecology

The October 2016 issue of Molecular Ecology features a new collaboration between the Cox lab and the Wu lab exploring the evolution of gut bacterial communities across anole ecomorphs native to Puerto Rico and introduced to Florida.
2nd Evolution Education Teacher Workshop at MLBS

In July 2016, we hosted the second annual Evolution Education Teacher Workshop at Mountain Lake Biological Station. With K-12 teachers attending from Utah, Texas, Minnesota, Michigan, and Virginia, as well as student participants from the Curry School of Education's joint Bachelor's in Science / Master's in Education program at UVA, we had another great experience. Thanks once again to everyone for your enthusiasm and ideas!
Aaron Reedy receives NSF DDIG and teaching award

In March 2016, Aaron won a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation, titled "Revealing the genomic targets of intralocus sexual conflict". The award supports his ongoing research using quantitative genetics and next-gen sequencing to study sexual conflict in a wild anole population.

In April, Aaron followed that up with a prestigious All-University Teaching Award recognizing his exceptional dedication as an educator and mentor at UVA.
Brown anole on cover of Journal of Experimental Zoology A

The December 2015 issue of Journal of Experimental Zoology features a handsome brown anole photographed in Florida by Christian Cox. The photo accompanies an article in which Christian, Bob, and UVA graduate Robbie Peaden ('15) put our respirometry gear to work measuring the metabolic cost associated with mounting a localized immune response to a novel antigen. 
Evolutionary Endocrinology Symposium at SICB 2016

In collaboration with Joel McGlothlin and Fran Bonier, we recently organized a symposium at SICB 2016 in Portland, OR on the roles of hormones in mediating evolutionary phenomena.

A huge thank you to multiple SICB divisions and the National Science Foundation for supporting the symposium!

Papers from the symposium are featured in the August 2016 issue of Integrative & Comparative Biology
First Evolution Education Teacher Workshop at MLBS

In June 2015, we hosted the first annual Evolution Education Teacher Workshop at Mountain Lake Biological Station. With middle- and high-school teachers attending from five states, we had a great mix of experiences and perspectives. A special thanks to Dr. Becky Fuller, who gave a great keynote talk and shared lesson plans and ideas from her own workshop on teaching evolution. Thanks to participants for your enthusiasm and ideas, and thanks to the National Science Foundation for funding!
May of '15: Engines take to the water

May 2015 marked the "official" start of our intensive field project to explore the genetic basis of intralocus sexual conflict in wild anoles in Florida. With two new, 19' canoes sporting the UVA "Saber V" logo and outfitted with 3.5 hp outboards, we fit right in with all of the yachts, pontoons, and jet skis on the intracoastal waterway.

We'll be back in July and August to census hatchlings...
Ariel Kahrl wins Wake Award and receives NSF DDIG

In January 2015, Ariel received the Wake Award for her SICB 2015 talk titled "Correlated evolution of proxies for pre- and post-copulatory sexual selection across squamate reptiles". Named in honor of Marvalee and David Wake, this annual award recognizes the best student talk in the SICB Division of Phylogenetics and Comparative Biology.

In March, Ariel followed that up with a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation, titled "Male fitness in a single cell". The award will support her studies of sexual selection on sperm count and sperm morphology in our Florida populations of brown anoles.