'Smallest reptile on earth' discovered in Madagascar

Had to share this here just cause, the little lizards are so damn cute.

Scientists in Madagascar have discovered the smallest reptiles known on earth. A species of 'nano-chameleon'. The males clock in at a whopping 13.5mm(~1/2") while the females are a bit bigger at 29mm(~1 1/8").

The researchers found that it hunts for mites on the rainforest floor and hides from predators in blades of grass.

The newly discovered species goes against the typical trend of miniaturization where small islands tend to have smaller species as the forest where these were discovered is well connected with other forests on the island. They are believed to be at risk due to habitat loss, though thus far only two have actually been found.

www.bbc.com...


Seriously, are those things not the cutest little chameleons???

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

Researchers found that it hunts for mites on the rainforest floor and hides from predators at night in blades of grass.

In a blog post, Dr Mark Scherz, one of the researchers involved in the discovery, called it "a spectacular case of extreme miniaturisation".

The forests where the Brookesia were located are still well connected with others across the north of the island, he said.

"So this tiny new chameleon violates the pattern of the smallest species being found on small islands. That suggests that something else is allowing/causing these chameleons to miniaturise," he added.

Awesome OP. I saw this little gal or guy the other day.

The world is truly an amazing place.

So much we don’t know about!

Thank you dug88! This is prime ATS

Nice!
Just the right size to crawl into your nostril while you sleep.

Something else to worry about if you go to Madagascar.

so they only found 2? did they kill them and dissect, did they catch and release? I cant read the full article at the moment how do they know they hide in blades of grass from predators and how do they know they hunt mites?


regardless cute little buggers

Well, they have probably always been there and there probably are creatures like that in other places in the world too. Just because they have not been discovered does not mean they don't exist. Kind of small, people who saw them probably thought they were babies or maybe thought they were some kind of grasshopper. But the Natives in the area, most who knew of them because they were out and about are probably long gone now. The young are taught from textbooks and textbooks do not say they exist, so they must have been mistaken when they saw one, they just saw a grasshopper.

Could you imagine the challenge of keeping them?!

Trying to find foods they could eat? And the eggs ... Good grief, how you do collect and incubate the eggs from something that small?

In a sense it would be like fish keeping only with something completely terrestrial. That's the size scale you're looking at. Imagine raising the youngsters ...

Wow, the scale it presents is interesting.

That is so adorable! They're almost cuter than a pygmy marmoset. Teaching the little ones about pets and it might be an interesting topic to bring up the smallest lizard. now that would be fun. I think I'll print a picture up tomorrow to bring with me to work...

That thing is so cool. I’ve always loved reptiles.

Imagine how hard it is to keep them as pets.

a reply to: dug88

"I shall call him mini me''

Really sad to think about how many creatures your killing, walking through the forest

They sure are cute.