Technocrat

Rapid Reproducing Reptile

zogger
Tue Jul 01 19:07:00 -0700 2008
Biology
manage

A species of chameleon has been discovered in Madagascar that has an entire life cycle in under a year. The juveniles spend the bulk of their life in the shell, hatch out, rapidly grow to adulthood and breed, laying the eggs for the next generation, then expire, right before the dry season starts. This is a new record for any four legged creature.

In fewer than 60 days, body size for males can quadruple or quintuple as they reach adulthood. No other known four-legged animal has such a rapid growth rate and such a short life span, says researcher Kristopher B. Karsten of Oklahoma State University. ed.z.: quite an evolutionary adaption, spend the nasty drought season totally inside a wet egg filled with nutrients

Here is the abstract: A unique life history among tetrapods: An annual chameleon living mostly as an egg

Rapid Reproducing Reptile
President4242
Wed Jul 02 11:41:13 -0700 2008
 manage

Given the shortage of food lately- I've got to ask, are they edible?

 

Do you have questions about the site? Write to bruce at perens.com . List of all articles we've ever published. Source Code Developer's Documentation RSS XML Sitemap XML News Sitemap Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict Valid CSS! [Valid RSS]