In Pictures: The Life and Death of the World's Shortest-Lived Chameleon

July 01, 2008

At Discovery News you can read here about a Madagascar chameleon that just broke the world's record for the four-legged animal with the shortest known lifespan. As mentioned at Born Animal yesterday, it incubates for 8-9 months before hatching, eating a lot, mating and then dying, all in just over a year's time. Oklahoma State University's Kristopher Karsten, who led the research, took several amazing photographs of the chameleons while he was in Madagascar's Ranobe Forest. I'd like to share these with you.

Life for the chameleons begins with mom, who digs her nest where she will deposit her eggs. (A radio transmitter is attached to this particular female.)

Nest eggs

After a short maturation phase, the adult chameleon looks like this. (A male is shown.)

The chameleon dies 4-5 months after hatching. Usually "old" age is the cause of death, but predators like Mimophis (aka "Big-Eyed" snakes) can eat them too.







As you can see, life can literally suck for these little reptiles. Other studies are showing the situation is getting even worse for them, due to pollution, global warming, habitat destruction caused by humans and other people-produced probs. Hopefully we can at least give them a break, even if the hungry snakes can't.