Post by Ceratodromeus on Feb 4, 2016 6:45:10 GMT 5
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Chamelonidae
Subfamily: Chameleoninae
Genus: Kinyongia
Species: K.msuyae
Description
Discovered in 2015 via review of preserved specimens, this is a small species of chameleon. The holotype( MTSN 9374), is an adult male that was collected from the field in 2011, in the Mdandu Forest Reserve of southern Tanzania. It measured 150.7mm(5.9in) in total length; 67mm(2.7in) in snout-ventral length, with an 81mm(3.1in) tail. The paratype animals, one juvenile and several adults, range from 97mm-145mm(3.8-5.7in) in total length; snout-vent lengths range from 40mm(1.5in) in the juvenile animal to 68mm(2.6in) in the largest paratype animal.Males are the only sex to sport the ornamentation on the end of the snout{1}.
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{1}A new species of Chameleon (Sauria: Chamaeleonidae: Kinyongia) highlights the biological affinities between the Southern Highlands and Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania
Abstract
A new species of chameleon is described from the Livingstone and Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania. The
new species is morphologically most similar to Kinyongia vanheygeni. Furthermore, a single, short rostral appendage
shows the species similarity to other Eastern Arc endemic Kinyongia species (e.g. K. uthmoelleri, K. oxyrhina, K. magomberae and K. tenuis). Females of all these species lack any rostral ornamentation and are all very similar morphologically.
Males of the new species, on which the morphological diagnosis is based, can be distinguished from other
Kinyongia by a shorter rostral appendage that bifurcates at the tip. They are easily distinguished from K. vanheygeni,
otherwise the most similar species, by differences in head scalation and the length and shape of the rostral appendage. The new species is associated with montane rainforest and is known from only four forest fragments of which two are in the Udzungwa and two in the Livingstone Mountains. Phylogenetically, the new species is sister to K. tenuis and K.magomberae, which together, form a clade that also contains K. oxyrhina. The disjunct distribution of the new species, in the Livingstone and Udzungwa mountains, stretches across the ‘Makambako Gap’ which is a putative biogeographical barrier separating the distinct faunas of the Southern highlands and Eastern Arc Mountains. Evidence from thisspecies however, points to potentially closer biological affinities between the Livingstone and Udzungwa mountains.
link to paper
