They tested this by collecting 28 water anoles from the Rio Java in Costa Rica. They applied a substance to the heads of 13 anoles to stop their skin from being water-repellant, causing the bubble to be unable to attach to their skin. Then, they compared the dive length and the ability to rebreathe bubbles in both groups of anoles.
On average, the anoles with no substance, also known as the control group, applied spent 67.5 seconds longer underwater than those with the substance. The longest recorded dive included in the analysis was 308 seconds, just over five minutes.
In the group with the substance applied, the longest recorded dive was 254 seconds, just over four minutes.
The results showed that semi-aquatic anoles can dive longer when they are allowed to rebreathe bubbles.
According to Swierk, the dive times may have been even longer if the experiment had been conducted in the wild instead of in tanks.
“The pressure to stay concealed from a real predator, which we didn’t use in our study, could nudge the control group’s dive times much longer,” said Swierk.
The study was published in the journal Biology Letters.
