A V-E-R-Y Small Reptile.

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Nature, Wildlife, Biodiversity, Biological Evolution

Edward Hessler

The smallest reptile on Earth? Could be. Certainly is to date.

The aptly commonly referred to nano-chameleon (Brookesia nana) was found, no two were found, a male and a female by a German team in Madagascar. I've seen the term used with the discovery, Madagascan, one of two names used, the other is Malagasy " to to describe its people, its culture, and many other things such as fauna, flora and other inanimate objects." 

In the Conversation, Andriamiraito Reveloson, made this conclusion after doing some research on the questions. When colleagues and I did some research into this, our findings came down firmly in favour of “Malagasy” (emphasis added). The article with a link to the research may be found here. 

Reveloson is described as a postdoctoral fellow in seismology at the University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) but I was not able to find any reference to him not only there but also not elsewhere. 

So by the numbers the male had an overall length of 22 mm (0.87 inches) and the larger female measured 29 mm (1.14 inches). In the BBC link above, Dr. Mark Schertz, a member of the research team noted an ecological question this miniature animal raises. "'So this tiny new chameleon violates the pattern of the smallest species being found on small islands. That suggests that something else is allowing/causing these chameleons to miniaturise."

Reuters also reported on its close relative discovered in 2012. Brookesia micra "is ... slightly larger."

Here is a short film from YouTube (1m51s)