Editing Adaptive radiation (section)

=== Caribbean anoles ===
[[Dactyloidae|Anole]] lizards are distributed broadly in the New World, from the Southeastern US to South America. With over 400 species currently recognized, often placed in a single genus (''[[Anolis]]''), they constitute one of the largest radiation events among all lizards.<ref name="Losos">{{Cite book|title=Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree: Ecology and Adaptive Radiation of Anoles|last=Losos|first=Jonathan|publisher=University of California Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0520255913|location=Oakland, CA}}</ref> Anole radiation on the mainland has largely been a process of speciation, and is not adaptive to any great degree, but anoles on each of the [[Greater Antilles]] ([[Cuba]], [[Hispaniola]], [[Puerto Rico]], and [[Jamaica]]) have adaptively radiated in separate, convergent ways.<ref name="Irschick">{{cite journal|last1=Irschick|first1=Duncan J.|display-authors=et al|year=1997|title=A comparison of evolutionary radiations in mainland and Caribbean Anolis lizards|journal=Ecology|volume=78|issue=7|pages=2191–2203|doi=10.2307/2265955|jstor=2265955|bibcode=1997Ecol...78.2191I }}</ref> On each of these islands, anoles have evolved with such a consistent set of morphological adaptations that each species can be assigned to one of six "[[Anolis ecomorphs|ecomorphs]]": trunk–ground, trunk–crown, grass–bush, crown–giant, twig, and trunk.<ref name="Irschick" /> Take for example crown–giants from each of these islands: the Cuban ''[[Anolis luteogularis]]'', Hispaniola's ''[[Anolis ricordii]]'', Puerto Rico's ''[[Anolis cuvieri]]'', and Jamaica's ''[[Jamaican giant anole|Anolis garmani]]'' (Cuba and Hispaniola are both home to more than one species of crown–giant).<ref name="Losos" /> These anoles are all large, canopy-dwelling species with large heads and large lamellae (scales on the undersides of the fingers and toes that are important for traction in climbing), and yet none of these species are particularly closely related and appear to have evolved these similar traits independently.<ref name="Losos" /> The same can be said of the other five ecomorphs across the Caribbean's four largest islands. Much like in the case of the cichlids of the three largest African Great Lakes, each of these islands is home to its own convergent ''Anolis'' adaptive radiation event.