Scientists rediscover chameleon in Madagascar last seen 100 years ago
Isabella O Malley
jeudi, 5 novembre 2020 à 07:00 - A conservation program that began in 2017 is cited as the reason for the rediscovery of the Voeltzkow s chameleon in Madagascar.
Scientists have rediscovered an elusive chameleon in Madagascar that was last seen over a century ago. The Voeltzkow s chameleon is a unique species that have a lifespan of just a few months during the rainy season in northwestern Madagascar. Until the spring of 2018, this species had not been spotted since 1913.
The female chameleon had never been documented before and the study notes that their colouration is “highly variable and can be extremely colourful.” The researchers say that when stressed, the dark green stripes on the females change to black, a violet stripe appears and runs from their cheek to the basis of the tail, and white and black speckles appear on parts of their tail and head. Alternatively, the males largely
Itty-bitty chameleon species discovered on Madagascar believed to be smallest reptile on Earth Storm Gifford
Its ancestors once tromped the planet tens of millions of years ago as indisputable kings, but the recently discovered nano-chameleon is no larger than a sunflower seed.
An expedition team stumbled upon the teeny-weeny reptile on the island of Madagascar, reported BBC News.
“The new chameleon is only known from a degraded (mountainous) rainforest in northern Madagascar and might be threatened by extinctions,” explained the journal Scientific Reports.
Scientists believe the critters are the smallest reptiles on Earth, with the male nano-chameleon’s body length measuring just over half an inch long the smallest of more than 11,000 known reptile species on Earth, according to Munich’s Bavarian State Collection of Zoology.
Top environment stories from Madagascar in 2020
by Mongabay.com on 30 December 2020
Madagascar witnessed a convergence of calamities this year, from the pandemic to surging forest fires to an unprecedented drought.
Despite growing pressures on its forests, new species continue to be uncovered from the island, with the description of a mouse lemur, several chameleons, and even the world’s ugliest orchid.
Protected Area management has emerged as a bone of contention between the government and NGOs that manage them, underscoring the challenges of doing conservation in a poor country.
Here are ten key stories and trends from Madagascar in 2020.
A Jonah’s mouse lemur (M. Jonahi). Image by Dominik Schüßler