Of the four anole species on Bimini, the twig or ghost anole is the most diverse and the most difficult to find.

This attenuate brownish gray, sharp-nosed, anole is very arboreal and prefers to move slowly and stealthily. The male’s dewlap is a pale yellowish peach and does not seem to be distended as readily as the dewlaps of most species. If approached, the twig anole will quietly and slowly sidle around the branch on which it is resting, adroitly keeping the branch between itself and the observer. The grayish coloration and lineate pattern blend so well with the bark of the trees on which this anole lives that the lizard is very easily overlooked.



In 1948, based on cranial scalation and lamellae count, Jim Oliver thought the Bimini twig anoles sufficiently distinct from those on Cuba and elsewhere in the Bahamas to assign them their own subspecies. He named them Anolis angusticeps chickcharnyi, the subspecific name being based on a mythical being -- a ghost, if you will, or perhaps a goblin -- that supposedly appeared on Andros Island.