A bit early for april fools day?
Reptile boffins spot world's smallest chameleon
German boffins have discovered the world's smallest chameleon in Madagascar while picking through leaf litter. tiny_chameleon_plos_one Scientist don't know why Brookesia micra is so small. It is not clear why island dwarfism occurs. Image va PLoS One The critter-hunters found the new species on the tiny islet of Nosy Hara …
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Thursday 16th February 2012 13:11 GMT FartingHippo
Island Dwarfism
I thought it was pretty common with isolated species. No predators combined with occasional food shortages mean smaller animals are selected (they need a smaller amount of food) and pass on their midget genes.
All the big hungry bastards kick the bucket and receive a posthumous Darwin award.
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Thursday 16th February 2012 22:44 GMT TheRealRoland
Re: David Attenborough
Last week, I think wednesday 8 feb, there was a nice National Geographic documentary about Madagascar - how diverse / specified the species were. These mini-meleons were part of that docu.
Not sure how old that docu was, but it looked great.
Sponsored by AT&T, it turned out.
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Thursday 16th February 2012 21:36 GMT John Sanders
Me and my JJ
Me and my J.J
With me he will stay-ay
And then we can play-ay
All night and all day-ay
From his lemur egg my lemur prince will rise
It's little femur leg growing to king size!
He'll be regally,
He be legally mine!
Aw, look at how cute he is!
Me and my J.J
With me he will stay-ay
And then we can play-ay
From June until May-ay
He'll be regally,
I said legally mine!
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Friday 17th February 2012 11:26 GMT Sceptic Tank
Another thing....
It was found on the "tiny islet of Nosy Hara". That would probably go a long way towards explaining why they are so small, wouldn't it? I mean, how many blimp sized chameleons would fit on a tiny island and how long would the food last?
Congratulations to the nosy scientists that went to Nosy Hara island to go find the wildlife for us!