Nano-chameleon: World's tiniest reptile within Madagascar

Scientists have discovered Earth's smallest known reptile, warning concurrently that sustained destruction of forests found in northern Madagascar threatens it has the survival.

Tiny enough to perch comfortably over a fingertip, the ultra-small chameleon, dubbed Brookesia nana, gets the same proportions and world-weary expression as its larger cousins all over the world."We discovered it in the mountains of northern of Madagascar," Frank Glaw, curator of herpetology at the Bavarian Talk about Collection of Zoology, told AFP within an interview.

A joint expedition in 2012 of German and Malagasy scientists didn't know if the two specimens collected, one female and one male, were adults until much later, he explained.

"We discovered that the female had eggs in her body, and that the male possessed large genitals, so it was obvious that they were adults."

Exceptionally large genitals, it turned out, accounting for almost 20 percent of its body size, Glaw and colleagues reported in the journal Scientific Reports.

The male's body, about how big is a peanut, was 13.5 millimetres long, with the tail adding another 9mm.

By contrast, the feminine measured 29mm from its nose to the end of its tail.

The pair remain the only specimens of the species ever found.

Islands connected way back when to neighbouring continents are known for miniaturised versions of family pets that crossed ephemeral land bridges, a phenomenon referred to as "island dwarfism".

"There are many extremely miniaturised vertebrates found in Madagascar, including the smallest primates and some of the tiniest frogs on the globe," said co-author Andolalao Rakotoarison of the University of Antananarivo found in Madagascar.

However the "island effect" will not connect with the Brookesia nana, which lives exclusively in mountainous areas most 1,300 metres (4,200 feet) above ocean level, the researchers concluded.

"We have no good description as to why this species is indeed small," said Glaw.

What scientists do know is that the diminutive reptiles tend teetering on the edge of extinction, whether or not the International Union for the Conservation for Nature (IUCN), keepers of the Red Set of threatened species, has yet to accomplish an assessment.

"Habitat destruction may be the major threat to the amphibians and reptiles of Madagascar," said Glaw.

"Maybe later on it'll be climate change, but for now it really is deforestation."

Because the mid-20th century, Madagascar has lost about 45 percent of its forest cover.

Brookesia nana and another mini-chameleon learned by Glaw and his co-workers on a little island off the coastline of Madagascar are specially vulnerable because their collection is so small.

"Brookesia micra lives in significantly less than two square kilometres," Glaw explained.

"A person big catastrophic event, a good forest fire, and the populace might be lost rapidly."

Madagascar in a worldwide "biodiversity hotspot", accounting for five percent of the world's unique plant and creature species.

The island nation possesses one of the highest rates of poverty on the globe, and lacks information for conservation and pure resource management.