The Mlanje Mountain chameleon (''Nadzikambia mlanjensis'') is one of two

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 ...

in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Nadzikambia Currently, two species are placed in the recently established genus ''Nadzikambia'' (derived from the species' name in Chichewa). They are plesiomorphic, small chameleons from the Ruo Gorge forest on Mount Mulanje in Malawi and Mount Mabu in Mo ...

'' (derived from the species' name in Chichewa). It is a

plesiomorph In phylogenetics, a plesiomorphy ("near form") and symplesiomorphy are synonyms for an ancestral character shared by all members of a clade, which does not distinguish the clade from other clades. Plesiomorphy, symplesiomorphy, apomorphy, a ...

ic, small chameleon from the Ruo Gorge forest on

Mount Mulanje Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, Co ...

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeas ...

. Initially placed into ''

Chamaeleo ''Chamaeleo'' is a genus of chameleons in the family Chamaeleonidae. Most species of the genus ''Chamaeleo'' are found in sub-Saharan Africa, but a few species are also present in northern Africa, southern Europe, and southern Asia east to Indi ...

'', it was for some time moved to the South African dwarf chameleons (''

Bradypodion ''Bradypodion'' (meaning "slow-footed" in Greek) is one of six genera of chameleons within the "true" or "typical" chameleons ( Family Chamaeleonidae). They are native to southern Africa, and are sometimes collectively called South African dw ...

'') by some (Klaver & Böhme, 1986). This was criticized because plesiomorphies cannot be used to define clades, and eventually turned out to be in error.Tolley, Krystal A.; Tilbury, Colin R. & Branch, William R. (2004): Phylogenetics of the southern African dwarf chameleons, ''Bradypodion'' (Squamata: Chamaeleonidae). ''Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution'' 30: 354–365.
PDF fulltext

References

* (1986): Phylogeny and classification of the Chamaeleonidae (Sauria) with special reference to hemipenis morphology. ''Bonner Zoologische Monographien'' 22: 1–64. * (2007): Corrections to species names recently placed in ''Kinyongia'' and ''Nadzikambia'' (Reptilia: Chamaeleonidae). ''Zootaxa'' 1426: 68. * http://www.chameleoninfo.com/Species_Profiles.html Nadzikambia Reptiles described in 1965 Taxa named by Donald George Broadley {{chameleon-stub