Officially known as Brookesia nana, either B. lullaby for short, the new species It is so small that it is believed to survive on a diet of mites and springtails, an order of hexapod arthropods close to insects.
About the size of a sunflower seed, the newly described creature from Madagascar may already be critically endangered. Finding such a small reptile also raises interesting questions about the lower limits of vertebrate body size.
Brookesia nana
Like other chameleons, This small reptile has a tongue that it can project to catch its prey.. It hunts during the day on the jungle floor and retreats to the safety of the blades of grass at night.
So far, scientists have observed only two individuals: a male and a female, each of which was captured in 2012, on an expedition to a group of mountains known as the Sorata massif.
The researchers suspect that this nanochameleon could receive the title of the smallest reptile in the world. The fact that only two individuals were found makes it difficult to generalize about the findings. Other chameleons of this species may be larger or smaller, just as humans may be of different heights.
Its closest competitor is a creature called Brookesia micron, a species of tiny chameleon that made its debut in 2012, photographed on the head of a matchstick.
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The news
This new species of chameleon could be the smallest reptile in the world
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.