The Mount d'Ambre leaf chameleon (''Brookesia tuberculata'') is a diminutive

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 ...

from far northern

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 ...

Similar species

A 1999 paper in the ''

Journal of Zoology The ''Journal of Zoology'' is a scientific journal concerning zoology, the study of animals. It was founded in 1830 by the Zoological Society of London and is published by Wiley-Blackwell. It carries original research papers, which are targeted ...

'' disputed a 1995 paper which considered this species and '' B. peyrierasi'' to be the same species as '' B. minima''. The later paper discussed the same details as the first – subtle morphological differences in the

hemipenis A hemipenis (: hemipenes) is one of a pair of intromittent organs of male squamates (snakes and lizards). Hemipenes are usually held inverted within the body, and are everted for reproduction via erectile tissue, much like that in the human pe ...

es of the respective species and determined they were not conspecific. They also found differences in the arrangement of head crests and in minute spines above the eyes.

Bibliography

*Klaver, C. & W. Boehme. 1997. ''Chamaeleonidae. Das Tierreich'', 112: i-xiv' 1 - 85. Verlag Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin, New York. *Martin, J., 1992. ''Masters of Disguise: A Natural History of Chameleons''. Facts On File, Inc., New York, NY. *Necas, P. 1999. ''Chameleons: Nature's Hidden Jewels''. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, FL.

References

Brookesia

Vulnerable animals Vulnerable biota of Africa Reptiles described in 1900 Taxa named by François Mocquard {{chameleon-stub