The Mount d'Ambre leaf chameleon (''Brookesia tuberculata'') is a diminutive
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 ...
from far northern
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 ...
.
Similar species
A 1999 paper in the ''
Journal of Zoology
The ''Journal of Zoology'' is a scientific journal concerning zoology, the study of animals. It was founded in 1830 by the Zoological Society of London and is published by Wiley-Blackwell. It carries original research papers, which are targeted t ...
'' disputed a 1995 paper which considered this species and ''
B. peyrierasi'' to be the same species as ''
B. minima''. The later paper discussed the same details as the first – subtle
morphological differences in the
hemipenis
A hemipenis (plural hemipenes) is one of a pair of intromittent organs of male squamates (snakes, lizards and worm lizards). Hemipenes are usually held inverted within the body, and are everted for reproduction via erectile tissue, much like tha ...
es of the respective species and determined they were not conspecific. They also found differences in the arrangement of head crests and in minute spines above the eyes.
Bibliography
*Klaver, C. & W. Boehme. 1997. ''Chamaeleonidae. Das Tierreich'', 112: i-xiv' 1 - 85. Verlag Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin, New York.
*Martin, J., 1992. ''Masters of Disguise: A Natural History of Chameleons''. Facts On File, Inc., New York, NY.
*Necas, P. 1999. ''Chameleons: Nature's Hidden Jewels''. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, FL.
References
Brookesia
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 ...
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 ...
Vulnerable animals
Vulnerable biota of Africa
Reptiles described in 1900
Taxa named by François Mocquard
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