''Brookesia lambertoni'', commonly known as the Fito leaf chameleon, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colors, bein ...

, a

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia alt ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Chamaeleonidae. The species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to Fito in eastern

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It was first described in 1970 by Édouard-Raoul Brygoo and

Charles Antoine Domergue Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

. It is rated as

Data Deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

(DD) by the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

(IUCN), as not enough data on the species have been collected to judge its

conservation status The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation ...

Distribution and habitat

The Fito leaf chameleon is endemic to Fito,

Toamasina Toamasina (), meaning "like salt" or "salty", unofficially and in French Tamatave, is the capital of the Atsinanana region on the east coast of Madagascar on the Indian Ocean. The city is the chief seaport of the country, situated northeast of it ...

, Madagascar, and its type locality is Fito. The species' common name, Fito leaf chameleon, is ambiguous, and does not explain if it is referring to the forest or the administrative area or the town, all of which are named Fito. Recent surveys have not found the species. The area where the species can be found is unknown and any extrapolation is impossible, because only two specimens have been found and recorded. Both specimens were collected before 1921. Its known habitat is in the conservation area

Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor The Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor (CAZ) is a large area of protected forest biome in eastern Madagascar. The CAZ encompasses some 3,810 km, making it one of the largest areas of rainforest remaining in the country. Over 2,000 species of plant ...

. It was found in an area affected by the

slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegeta ...

method of agriculture and logging for building materials, although no threats can be confirmed. Because of this, the International Union for Conservation of Nature listed this species as

, as not enough information has been collected to determine its

Taxonomy and etymology

This species was initially described by Brygoo and Domergue in 1970 as ''Brookesia lambertoni'', which is still its scientific name, and was named for French

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Charles Lamberton Charles Lamberton (23 April 18768 October 1960) was a French paleontologist who lived and studied on the island of Madagascar between 1911 and 1948 and specialized in the recently extinct subfossil lemurs. He made significant contributions towa ...

.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (''Brookesia lambertoni'', p. 149). However, it is more commonly known simply as the Fito leaf chameleon.

Distribution and habitat

Taxonomy and etymology

References

Further reading