World’s Smallest Reptile Discovered – Madagascar
A newly discovered ‘nano-chameleon’ could be the world’s smallest reptile. It is so small it can sit on your fingertip. Called Brookesia nana, or ‘nano-chameleon’, it is a blotchy brown lizard that usually does not grow more than an inch in body length.
Two of these tiny reptiles were discovered by a German-Madagascan expedition team in Madagascar. The male Brookesia nana has a body of only 13.5mm, making it the smallest of the approximately 11,500 known reptile species, according to the Bavarian State collection of Zoology in Munich. Its total length, from head to tail is just 22mm. The female is bigger, being around 29mm, possible so that she is able to have egg carrying capacity. So whilst the males might be the smallest reptiles in the world, the females aren’t.
Brookesia nana are different from other larger chameleon species, as they have dull colouration and lack the capacity for major colour changes.
Discovered in Montane Rainforest in Madagascar
Only two Brookesia nana have so far been found, in a single location.
“The new chameleon is only known from a degraded montane rainforest in northern Madagascar and might be threatened by extinction.”
Glaw et. al. in Scientific Report Journal
It is thought that they prefer to live on the forest floor, making them susceptible to extinction due to anthropogenic pressure. The lower level natural forest, close to their habitat, has already been eradicated due to deforestation, slash and burn agriculture and cattle farming. Recently, the area called ‘Sorata massif’ has received official protection, being part of the protected ‘Resérve de Ressources Naturelles du Corridor Marojejy-Anjanaharibe Sud-Tsaratanàna partie Nord’ (also known as COMATSA Nord19). It is hoped that this new reserve will help to conserve the remaining forest habitats and the researchers suggest that all Brookesia nana species are put on the Critically Endangered IUCN Red List.
Find out more online
You can find out more in the newly published paper – Extreme miniaturization of a new amniote vertebrate and insights into the evolution of genital size in chameleons – which describes this new species and discusses why these chameleons stay so small. The paper, written by Glaw, F., Köhler, J., Hawlitschek, O. et al., can be found online in the Journal Scientific Reports.
Main picture – Male Brookesia nana sp. © Glaw et. al.