Green Anole

About the Green Anole

Anolis carolinensis or green anole (US: ) (among other names below) is a tree-dwelling species of anole lizard native to the southeastern United States and introduced to islands in the Pacific and Caribbean. A small to medium-sized lizard, the green anole is a trunk-crown ecomorph and can change its color to several shades from brown to green.

Other names include the Carolina anole, Carolina green anole, American anole, American green anole, North American green anole and red-throated anole. It is commonly called chameleon in the southeastern United States and sometimes referred to as the American chameleon (typically in the pet trade) due to its color-changing ability; however, it is not a true chameleon.

Anolis carolinensis is a species of the large lizard genus Anolis within the family Dactyloidae (anole lizards). This species was named by Friedrich Siegmund Voigt (1781-1850) in 1832. Phylogenetic evidence indicates that the Carolina anole belongs to the Anolis carolinensis anole series, a wider clade of Caribbean Anolis which are all also known as "green anoles". This group is composed of mid-sized trunk-crown anoles with large, conspicuously elongated heads and... Wikipedia →