BERLIN (AP) – Fits the tip of the human finger, but this chameleon could make a big splash.
Scientists in Madagascar and Germany say that a recently discovered species of chameleon is a competitor for the title of the smallest reptile in the world.
Frank Glaw, who was part of the international team of researchers who classified the new species and named it the dwarf Brookesia, said the body of the male specimen appears to be only 13.5 millimeters long (just over 1 / 2- inch). )
He is at least 1.5 millimeters shorter than the previous record holder, another member of the Brookesia family.
Glaw, a reptile expert at the Bavarian Zoological Collection in Munich, said the little man and a slightly older female were seen on a mountain by a local guide during a 2012 expedition.
“You really have to get on your knees to find them,” Glaw told the Associated Press in a telephone interview on Friday. “They’re obviously camouflaged and moving very slowly.”
Glaw and his colleagues performed a computer scan of the female and found that she was laying two eggs, confirming that she was an adult.
For men, the researchers closely looked at “well-developed” genitals, which, in chameleons, appear in pairs known as hemipenes.
They found that the genitals of the Brookesia nana specimen were about one-fifth the size of its body, possibly to allow it to mate with the larger female.
“I have little doubt that he is an adult male,” Glaw said. “If we had a mating pair, it would obviously be better proof.”
Confirming Brookesia nana as the smallest reptile species will require finding several of them, which could take several years, he said.
The team’s research was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Chameleons are threatened by deforestation in Madagascar, which hosts many species.
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