Anna Thonis, PhD 🦎
@annainthefield.bsky.social
3.8K followers 2.3K following 160 posts
Ecologist and herpetologist | Postdoc at NYU Co-Chair, IUCN Anole Specialist Group #lizards #GIS #GlobalChange #SDMs #conservation #HERper #DIYnails she/her annathonis.com
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On my way to the Puerto Rico Herpetological Symposium! Excited to present some of my work on anoles and urbanization for the first time!! And also to see the talks being given by a bunch of my former students💗🦎☺️
Had the cool opportunity to talk about lizards and turtles in Central Park for Soapbox Science today!
Yesterday during wall lizard fieldwork, some very kind NYS Parks employees taught us how to tag monarch butterflies 😊🦋
Reposted by Anna Thonis, PhD 🦎
A large male wall lizard from today's sampling on the north fork of Long Island! Stopped for hot apple cider and cider donuts post fieldwork🦎😊
I guess you specifically said snakes - sorry! But same answer ultimately applies. Like there may be some studies showing individual snake species increasing in overall size (I would have to do some digging), but I don't believe any evidence backs that it is happening for all snake species.
To the best of my knowledge, no evidence suggests that anthropogenic/modern-day climate change is driving overall increases in reptile body size (like in the clade overall), however some studies have found overall increases for specific species. Some studies have also said that reptiles will shrink!
Back to catching Italian wall lizards (Podarcis siculus) in NY!
Reposted by Anna Thonis, PhD 🦎
I'm recruiting a PhD student to join the lab at @gtsciences.bsky.social in Fall 2026! Broad taxonomic and topical freedom under the umbrella of vertebrate joint form and function. Information here: www.manafzadeh.com – please share 🦴🩻
✨Some news✨: after finishing my postdoc, I’ll be starting my lab as an Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech. Join us in Atlanta to study how joints work and where they come from!
Cool research on anoles and urbanization!!
The NYU lizard colony (@kmwinchell.bsky.social) is now one step closer to being up and running! Today we finished these 56 lizard "condos" which can individually house 224 lizards! This has been a massive effort, and we are so excited to have reached this milestone🦎 We are so close to anoles at NYU!
Eek so cute!!

Garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) near Ithaca, NY 🐍
One week ago, we wrapped up another successful field season in Puerto Rico! We completed the 8th season of my mark-recapture surveys for three species of Puerto Rican anole. We also added another 10 sites to our PR anole niche space project, bringing our total to 30 sites.

Yay data! Yay anoles! 🦎🦎
Although totally not important for what I actually work on, I am now very good at snagging baby iguanas out of bushes.
Managed to lasso this stunning Puerto Rican blue-tailed ameiva (Pholidoscelis wetmorei) yesterday! 🦎💙
When you return from a day of urban field work to find a young crested anole just about ready to take a snooze on your door handle 🦎
Another Puerto Rican giant anole 💚