MAKE A MEME
View Large Image
| View Original: | FurciferLabordi.jpg (1270x1338) | |||
| Download: | Original | Medium | Small | Thumb |
| Courtesy of: | commons.wikimedia.org | More Like This | ||
| Keywords: FurciferLabordi.jpg A photograph of Furcifer labordi Labord's Chameleon from Madagascar Adult male Labord's chameleon Furcifer labordi from southwestern Madagascar They are a species of tetrapod four-limbed vertebrates F labordi have the shortest lifespan ever recorded for a four-legged vertebrate animal--just 4-5 months post-hatch--and spend more of their short life inside the egg than outside No other tetrapods are known to have this short a life span These findings suggest that the rapid death of chameleons in captivity may for some species actually represent the natural adult life span Labord's chameleons hatch from eggs in November then grow at an astonishing rate reaching sexual maturity by January They battle fiercely over mates then breed and lay their eggs by February after which they will promptly drop dead For the next nine months the entire species is represented only by eggs More about this Image Christopher John Raxworthy received a CAREER Faculty Early Career Advancement award from the National Science Foundation to complete a survey of amphibians reptiles and small mammals and their co-evolved parasites at 15 sites in the Tsaratanana Massif Complex of Madagascar; describe new species revise taxonomic groups and produce species lists monographs keys and field guides; and establish a Web site-accessible database for use with future research work and conservation planning When he began his research only about 400 species of Malagasy reptiles and amphibians had been identified and the information available about these species was often inaccurate or incomplete Through his research Raxworthy has found and is now describing more than 150 new species and has added a wealth of information to the database on known species Currently he is focusing his research on chameleon systematics a project that includes field surveys in remote mountainous areas of northern Madagascar Many of these areas have never been previously explored or surveyed Research supported by NSF grant DEB 99-84496 National Science Foundation http //nsf gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp cfm med_id 63220 from img date Christopher Raxworthy PD-USGov original upload log en wikipedia Jacob Robertson CommonsHelper page en wikipedia FurciferLabordi jpg 2009-11-28 03 08 Chhe 1270×1338× 1305260 bytes <nowiki> A photograph of Furcifer labordi Labord's Chameleon from Madagascar Adult male Labord's chameleon Furcifer labordi from southwestern Madagascar They are a species of tetrapod four-limbed vertebrates F labordi have </nowiki> Furcifer labordi Reptiles of Madagascar | ||||
