Like many anoles, this species displays the characteristic behaviour of doing push-ups as well as inflating a pizza-like flap of coloured skin on its throat, known as a dewlap, in order to show others how dominant it is, and thus attract mates or intimidate rivals.

This species was first scientifically described as Anolis cristatellus by André Marie Constant Duméril and Gabriel Bibron in 1837 using a number of specimens sent to Paris by Auguste Plée from Martinique.

[2][5][6] Following Guyer and Savage, Albert Schwartz and Robert W. Henderson also classified this species as Ctenonotus cristatellus in 1988.

[2][3] Because this splitting caused the new remaining genera to be paraphyletic,[6][7][8] most herpetologists chose not to follow this taxonomic interpretation, and within a decade this new nomenclature was seen as a synonym.

[5][8] In 2012 the same authors, together with Kirsten Nicholson and Brian Crother, again tried moving the species to their new genus, this time using more molecular data in their cladistics analysis, but did so less than convincingly.

[9] "Hybrids" between the two subspecies were first found on the main island of Puerto Rico and Isleta Marina in the late 1970s and reported by Heatwole et al. in 1981[9] (this islet is now covered in giant apartment buildings),[citation needed] but by 1988 it appeared that many of the populations occurring on the islands in between the two taxa were intermediate between the two taxa.

[4] The males of this species are easily recognizable by their permanently erect caudal crests -which is a high sail- or fin-like structure running down the top of their tails,[5][14] which is supported anatomically by bony extensions of the vertebrae.

[5][15] The colour is variable; the head and body are bronze to greenish grey, with faint and irregular brownish spots, and the belly is greenish-yellow and the throat is whitish.

[14] The juveniles are transversely banded in brown, with some purplish-brown dots on the throat and the crotch (when preserved),[4] and often have a light mid-dorsal stripe, which some females retain into adulthood.

In 1939 Hobart Muir Smith described Anolis cozumelae as a likely endemic from the island of Cozumel off the eastern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, from a single specimen collected by Charles Frederick Millspaugh in 1899, which had been sitting in a flask of preservative in the Field Museum of Natural History until examined by Smith.

[5] The population in Costa Rica was introduced by at least 1970, and was still in the process of expanding as of 2011; it is found on the eastern Caribbean coast, from as far south as Bribri near the Panamanian border, west to Siquirres, and north to Turrialba.

[5] In southern Florida it has been documented west up to the Tampa Bay area[2] and occurs on Key Biscayne, Dade County and in Miami.

It is believed to have entered the island via imported goods, as its sites of original invasion are adjacent to a cargo airport and a sea port.

[5] One might question how such a lizard could be present on such a vast number of otherwise small and isolated islets, however, the modern distribution likely does not reflect an exceptional colonising ability of this species to sally forth over marine distances, or that Arawak peoples somehow spread these creatures over the various cays.

[17] In some parks, such as Los Tres Picachos State Forest, it may be less common than species such as A. cuvieri, A. evermanni, A. gundlachi and A.

[10] These lizards are "ground-trunk anoles", which is an "Anolis ecomorph",[2][12] and means that they spend the majority of their time on the bottom two meters of tree trunks, but will go to the ground to forage and also to lay eggs.

[17] When looking for a mate or defending its territory, the males of many anole species may display their dewlap and perform "push-ups" to establish dominance.

Like many anole species, this lizard can change colour from dark brown to tan -this is in response to emotions, rather than a method of camouflaging itself such as true chameleons.

[12] In Puerto Rico this species has been photographed trying to gobble up quite large prey, such as the blindsnake Typhlops hypomethes, as well as other anoles, such as a juvenile A.

[12] In the Los Tres Picachos State Forest it occurs together with A. cuvieri, A. evermanni, A. gundlachi, A. krugi, A. occultus, A. pulchellus and A.

[12] Henderson and Robert Powell (2009) record that this species may be eaten by another anole, A. cuvieri, as well as the non-native mongoose, Herpestes javanicus and the bird Margarops fuscatus, a thrasher.

Rios-Lopez et al. recorded in 2015 that the Puerto Rican endemic bird Todus mexicanus, a species of tody known locally as San Pedrito, eats this lizard.