Our work is featured in the cover of Ecological Applications

One of our favorite anoles made it to the cover of Ecological Applications!

We are super happy to share that our paper titled Recolonization of secondary forests by a locally extinct Caribbean anole through the lens of range expansion theory made it to the cover of the journal Ecological Applications. Recovering forests are becoming a prevalent characteristic of the Anthropocene landscape, particularly in the tropics. Some of these recovering forests provide the minimum requirements for the recolonization of fauna. In this study we study this process of fauna recolonization through the lens of range expansion. We compared phenotypic traits, population dynamics, and parasitism rates of a shade-specialist anole (Anolis gundlachi) among forests of different ages in Puerto Rico. Our results show that animals in young forests have unique phenotypic traits, lower densities, and suffer less parasitism rates, as predicted by range expansion theory. This was a highly collaborative study including many graduate and undergraduate researchers in our group. We are excited to show off this beautiful anole in the cover the journal. Look at that beautiful blue eyes!