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'Smallest reptile on earth' discovered in Madagascar

belmarduk

Member
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Scientists believe they may have discovered the smallest reptile on earth - a chameleon subspecies that is the size of a seed.

Two of the tiny lizards were discovered by a German-Madagascan expedition team in Madagascar.

The male Brookesia nana, or nano-chameleon, has a body of just 13.5mm.

This makes it the smallest of about 11,500 known species of reptiles, according to the Bavarian State collection of Zoology in Munich.

Its length from top to tail is 22mm (0.86in).

The female is far bigger at around 29mm, the institute said, adding that other specimens were yet to be located, despite "great effort".

"The new chameleon is only known from a degraded montane rainforest in northern Madagascar and might be threatened by extinction," said the Scientific Reports journal.
Oliver Hawlitschek, a scientist at the Center of Natural History in Hamburg, said: "The nano-chameleon's habitat has unfortunately been subject to deforestation, but the area was placed under protection recently, so the species will survive."

BBC
 

sackings

Member
Clearly fake! The chameleon isnt the same color as his hand.
Madagascar is an incredible place. Ever since playing UC4 i've wanted to go there.
 

epicnemesis

Member
Clearly fake! The chameleon isnt the same color as his hand.
Madagascar is an incredible place. Ever since playing UC4 i've wanted to go there.
I wanted to go too, then I watched the most recent episode of grand tour. That’s a hard pass for me. I’ve spent too much of my life in Nigeria and it seems the same.
 

belmarduk

Member
I wanted to go too, then I watched the most recent episode of grand tour. That’s a hard pass for me. I’ve spent too much of my life in Nigeria and it seems the same.

Madagascar likely has problems you would find in most other developing countries.. but they have one problem that is unique. The aye aye.

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They're actually primates... but they have rodent teeth and elongated middle fingers...
but they're endangered because the locals consider them to be harbingers of death due to their unusual appearance and kill them.
 
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