Posted on behalf of Susan Young.

A newly discovered dwarf chameleon is among the smallest lizards in the world, with the diminutive males reaching a total length of less than 24 millimetres.

Brookesia micra (pictured) and three other species of tiny leaf chameleons were discovered in both rainforests and dry forests in extreme northern Madagascar by Miguel Vences of the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany and his colleagues. Each of the four new species occupies a small, discrete range in the northern island region, and the striking differentiation amongst the miniaturized lizards evolved some 10 to 20 million years ago, the authors suggest in PLOS One.

Image credit: PLOS One