World's Tiniest Chameleons Found in Madagascar
This little chameleon is one of four miniature lizards identified in Madagascar, adding to our growing list of amazingly teeny animals. The one on the match in this picture is a juvenile, but even the adults max out at 30 millimeters. They're the smallest lizards in the world, and some of the smallest vertebrates found to date. The Lilliputian lizard is near the lower limits of size in vertebrate animals. Learning about how these creatures live can put some constraints on animal morphology - if your species has eyes, a backbone and a brain, there's likely a limit to how little you can get. A different group of field biologists just announced the world's smallest frog, and they claim it is the smallest vertebrate in the world, knocking a tiny Indonesian fish off the pedestal of puniness. The chameleons are related to other Madagascan lizards, but DNA analysis showed they...