The forests of northern Madagascar harbour a dwarf chameleon that is the smallest lizard in the world in terms of total length. Adult males of the diminutive Brookesia micra reach a length of less than 24 millimetres.
B. micra and three other tiny lizard species were discovered in the region's rainforests and dry forests. Miguel Vences at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany and his group analysed tail length and head width, male genital morphology and gene sequences to place each species within the chameleon taxonomy. All occupy a small, discrete geographical range, and probably evolved some 10 million to 20 million years ago, the authors suggest.
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Lilliputian lizards come to light. Nature 482, 442 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/482442a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/482442a
