Fascinating Find in Madagascar: Tiny lizard
Madagascar continues to facinate!
A 29mm miniture chameleon, Brookesia micra, has been discovered on a remote islet off the northern coast of Madagascar. A juvenile can stand on the head of a match. What's more, this is just one of four new species of tiny lizard discovered by German scientists from Zoologische Staatssammlung in Munich.
It is speculated that these tiny Brookesia micra may be a result of a double-island effect of island dwarfism - where a species becomes smaller over time to adapt to a restricted habitat. In this case each habitat (mostly in the leaf litter) was restricted to a very small area of as little as a single square kilometer. Obviously this tiny habitat means that a species could be wiped-out very easily. B. tristis, named after the French word "triste" meaning sad, was found in an isolated patch of forest close to an expanding city.
I wonder how many species have been wiped out in recent years without our knowledge by encrouchement on habitats?
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