At 13.5mm long, Frank Glau, lead author of the study, is the smallest known male of nearly 11,500 reptile species. At the same time, smaller chameleon species appear to have the largest genitals compared to their body size, compared to 51 other species of chameleon.
A female sample was also found during the expedition: at 19 mm, it was slightly larger than the male. Despite the efforts made, no other samples of the new species have been found.
Male genitals measure 18.5 percent of his body length. The explanation may lie in the difference in size between the sexes, it seems. In the largest species of chameleon, the males are much larger than the females, and in the smaller ones it is the exact opposite. “Therefore, very young males need relatively large reproductive organs to reproduce successfully with larger females,” said co-author Miguel Vensz, from the Technical University of Braunschweig.
The new species was found during a German – Malagasy expedition on the island called Brookesia nana. The habitat of most dwarf chameleons is very small and sometimes covers only a few square kilometers.
