Palleon

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Palleon
Palleon nasus, male

Palleon nasus , male

Systematics
Order : Scale reptiles (Squamata)
without rank: Toxicofera
without rank: Iguana (Iguania)
Family : Chameleons (Chamaeleonidae)
Subfamily : Stubby-tailed chameleons (Brookesiinae)
Genre : Palleon
Scientific name
Palleon
Glaw , Hawlitschek & Ruthensteiner , 2013

Palleon is a species of small chameleons that is poor in speciesandoccursin dry forests in the south-east and north of Madagascar . The two species of the genus were previously placed in the genus Brookesia and separated from it, as they are the basal cladeopposite toall other Brookesia species. The generic name Palleon is made up of the Greek words for old (“Palae”) and lion (“leon”), with the ending “ae” from “Palae” being deleted for better pronunciation.

features

The two Palleon species are small chameleons with a brownish color. Their head-torso length is 22 to 47 mm, the total length 37 to 87 mm. The trunk is flattened laterally, the tail is short and the muzzle is relatively long. At the tip of the snout they have a single ( P. lolontany ) or a pair ( P. nasus ) membranous outgrowth. Males have a wavy, serrated back crest. Back spines are not present.

Palleon is thus similar to some of the chameleons of the genus Rhampholeon native to mainland Africa , but has a very large genetic distance to this genus. Palleon differs from Brookesia by the elongated and pointed head (short in Brookesia ), the membranous outgrowth on the tip of the snout and the wavy back crest (no crest in all Brookesia species). Most Brookesia species, on the other hand, have a spiked back. The genetic distance to Brookesia is also great. Palleon differs from Rieppeleon , another genus of small African chameleons, in its longer snout and tail (exception R. kerstenii ) and from all other chameleon genera in its small size, shorter tail, the lack of any color drawings and the relatively large genetic distance .

species

Two species currently belong to the genus Palleon :

  • Palleon lolontany ( Raxworthy & Nussbaum , 1995).
  • Palleon nasus ( Boulenger , 1887)
    • Palleon nasus nasus ( Boulenger , 1887)
    • Palleon nasus pauliani ( Brygoo , Blanc & Domergue , 1970)

literature

  • Frank Glaw , Oliver Hawlitschek, Bernhard Ruthensteiner: A new genus name for an ancient Malagasy chameleon clade and a PDF-embedded 3D model of its skeleton. In: Salamandra . Volume 49, No. 4, 2013, pp. 237-238 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Krystal A. Tolley, Ted M. Townsend, Miguel Vences : Large-scale phylogeny of chameleons suggests African origins and Eocene diversification. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences. Vol. 280, No. 1759, 2013, 20130184, doi : 10.1098 / rspb.2013.0184 .

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