The world’s smallest male reptile can fit on your fingertip, if its huge genitals don’t get in the way.
Meet Brookesia babe, an extremely small species of chameleon from the tropical rainforests of northern Madagascar.
Researchers recently described a male and female of the species in a study published Jan. 28 in the journal. Scientific reports , and were amazed at the male’s particularly small dimensions.
Measuring only half an inch (13.5 millimeters) from snout to cesspool (it’s the versatile hole reptiles use for both shedding and breeding), the adult male is the smallest adult reptile ever described .
In fact, the male B. nana it was even smaller than its female counterpart, which measured 19.2mm long from snout to cesspool. (Not only is it longer than its mate, it is also slightly longer than the Caribbean gecko Sphaerodactylus ariasae
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“Since the general body plan of reptiles is quite similar to that of mammals and humans, it is fascinating to watch these organisms and their organs become miniaturized,” said lead author of the study Frank Glaw, herpetologist at the Zoology Collection. From the state of Bavaria. in Munich, Live Science said in an email.
However, not all organs are so miniaturized. Male lizards and snakes have a pair of reproductive organs called hemipenes, two tubular genitalia that stay inverted in the male’s body until it’s time to mate.
B. nana hemipenes were 0.1 inch (2.5 mm) long when fully turned over, or about 18.5 percent of their total body length.
The genitals of the chameleon. (Glaw et al., Scientific Reports, 2021)
Surprisingly, this is not an unusual trait among the world’s smallest lizards, the researchers wrote.
Genital length in related chameleons ranges from 6.3% to 32.9% of the male’s total body length, averaging 13.1% out of 52 species, according to the team. (Other animals have much larger genital-to-body size ratios, including ducks, whose genital length may be equal to their body length, and barnacles, whose genitals may be eight times as long. than their bodies, the researchers noted.)
“[This] revealed an interesting pattern: Smaller species often have proportionately larger genital sizes, ”study co-author Mark Scherz, herpetologist at the University of Potsdam in Germany, said in a blog post.
Why is this possible? According to Scherz, this could be linked to the size dimorphism between males and females of these tiny species of reptiles. Even if the female is even larger than the male, there may be a “restriction” placed on the size of her genitals, Scherz wrote.
Because there are only two known specimens of B. nanaIt is difficult to draw definitive conclusions about this sexual dynamic. And scientists still don’t know how endangered these little creatures are.
But as Madagascar’s rainforests face a significant threat of encroachment from human activities, such as deforestation and agriculture, these tiny lizards are likely also at risk, the researchers wrote.
Without significant conservation efforts, the world’s smallest reptiles could easily escape our grip.
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This article was originally published by Living Science. Read the original article here.
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