Scientists have identified Earth's smallest known reptile, warning at the same time that sustained destruction of forests in northern Madagascar threatens its survival.
Tiny enough to perch comfortably on a fingertip, the ultra-compact chameleon - dubbed Brookesia nana - has the same proportions and world-weary expression as its larger cousins around the world.
"We discovered it in the mountains of northern of Madagascar," Frank Glaw, curator of herpetology at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, told AFP in an interview.
Researchers have discovered what may be the world's smallest reptile. This micro chameleon species (Brookesia nana) was found in northern Madagascar and is only 22mm long from its snout to the tip of its tail. ?? Frank Glaw pic.twitter.com/h3D3zbicXP
— Big Think (@bigthink) February 1, 2021
A joint expedition in 2012 of German and Malagasy scientists did not know whether the two specimens collected - one female and one male - were adults until much later, he explained.
"We found out that the female had eggs in her body, and that the male had large genitals, so it was clear that they were adults."
Exceptionally large genitals, it turned out, accounting for nearly 20% of its body size, Glaw and colleagues reported in the journal Scientific Reports.
The male's body - about the size of a peanut - was 13.5 millimetres long, with the tail adding another nine millimetres.
By contrast, the female measured 29mm from its nose to the tip of its tail.
The pair remain the only specimens of the species ever found.