''Brookesia micra'', also known as the Nosy Hara leaf chameleon is a species of

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 ...

s from the

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanen ...

of Nosy Hara in

Antsiranana Antsiranana ( mg, Antsiran̈ana ), named Diego-Suárez prior to 1975, is a city in the far north of Madagascar. Antsiranana is the capital of Diana Region. It had an estimated population of 115,015 in 2013. History The bay and city originally ...

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 Afric ...

. At the time of its discovery, it was the smallest known chameleon and among the smallest reptiles, until the 2021 discovery of the even smaller '' B. nana''. Adult ''B. micra'' can grow up to in length.

Taxonomy

''Brookesia micra'' was discovered and named by a team of researchers led by

Frank Glaw Frank Rainer Glaw (born 22 March 1966 in Düsseldorf) is a German herpetologist working at the Zoologische Staatssammlung München. Glaw studied biology in Cologne from 1987, where he completed his diploma. Thereafter, he attended the Univers ...

of the

Bavarian State Collection of Zoology The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology (german: Zoologische Staatssammlung München) or ZSM is a major German research institution for zoological systematics in Munich. It has over 20 million zoological specimens. It is one of the largest natura ...

. Glaw and his colleagues have been conducting expeditions into the Malagasy forests for eight years. Members of the species had previously been labelled as ''Brookesia'' sp. "Nosy Hara" in 2007 by Glaw and Vences.

Etymology

The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bo ...

of ''B. micra'' is a derivation of the Latin form of the Greek word "μικρός" (''mikros''), which means either "tiny" or "small" and refers to the small body size.

Description

The males of ''Brookesia micra'' reach a maximum snout-vent length of , and the total body length of both of the sexes is less than , ranking it among the smallest

amniote Amniotes are a clade of tetrapod vertebrates that comprises sauropsids (including all reptiles and birds, and extinct parareptiles and non-avian dinosaurs) and synapsids (including pelycosaurs and therapsids such as mammals). They are dis ...

vertebrates found anywhere in the world. Compared to ''

Brookesia minima ''Brookesia minima'', (common names of which include the dwarf chameleon, the Madagascan dwarf chameleon, the minute leaf chameleon, and the Nosy Be pygmy leaf chameleon), is a diminutive chameleon that was regarded as the smallest lizard of t ...

'', ''B. micra'' has a shorter tail and a larger head. Adults of ''B. micra'' also have orange tails, as opposed to an inconspicuous brown one. The size of the lizard may be linked to its habitat, due to

insular dwarfism Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of large animals evolving or having a reduced body size when their population's range is limited to a small environment, primarily islands. This natural process is disti ...

Distribution and habitat

''Brookesia micra'', together with three other species, were found in north Madagascar in 2005. This species was discovered on a small, uninhabited island in the Nosy Hara archipelago off the coast of Madagascar. They typically reside in leaf litter during the day, and climb up into tree branches as high as at night to sleep. ''B. micra'' habitats are most prevalent in areas with tsingy (i.e., limestone karst), potentially because of the moisture it provides, the protection from predators, and/or that it is the most abundant ecological feature of the area. High altitudes (500-700 meters) and sloped ground (due to higher levels of water shedding) were additional features that were common in ''B. micra'' habitats, while leaf litter was not found to be a very important characteristic of their habitats. ''B. micra'' lives in an area subject to

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a ...

, which may make the species "sensitive to

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

", according to researcher Jorn Köhler. Due to the highly specific nature of ''B. micra's'' habitat, the species would be at high risk for extinction if habitat destruction were to occur.

References

;Specific ;General * {{Taxonbar, from=Q232278 M Endemic fauna of Madagascar Reptiles of Madagascar Reptiles described in 2012 Taxa named by Frank Glaw Taxa named by Jörn Köhler Taxa named by Miguel Vences