''Calumma amber'', commonly known as the Amber Mountain chameleon, is a
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
of
chameleon
Chameleons or chamaeleons (Family (biology), family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 200 species described as of June 2015. The members of this Family (biology), family are best known for ...
s
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to
Antsiranana Province,
Madagascar
Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...
.
The species was first observed in 1989 and was first described in 2006, and can only be found in the northernmost portion of the northern
Diana Region
Diana is a region in Madagascar at the northern part of the island. It borders the regions of Sava to the southeast and Sofia to the southwest. It covers an area of 19,266 km2, and had a population of 889,736 in 2018. The regional capital is ...
of Madagascar, on and around
Montagne d'Amber National Park. ''C. amber'' was originally considered to be a population of ''
C. brevicorne.''
References
Further reading
*
Raxworthy CJ,
Nussbaum RA. 2006. Six new species of occipital-lobed ''Calumma'' chameleons (Squamata: Chamaeleonidae) from Madagascar, with a new description of ''Calumma brevicorne''. ''Copeia'' 2006 (4): 711–734. (''Calumma amber'', new species).
amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin. Examples of it have been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since the Neolithic times, and worked as a gemstone since antiquity."Amber" (2004). In Maxine N. Lurie and Marc Mappen (eds.) ''Encyclopedia ...
Endemic fauna of Madagascar
Reptiles of Madagascar
Reptiles described in 2006
Taxa named by Ronald Archie Nussbaum
Taxa named by Christopher John Raxworthy
{{chameleon-stub