Rare, vine-swinging Tarzan Chameleon found in Tarzanville
By ANIFriday, September 3, 2010
WASHINGTON - A rare, vine-swinging species of chameleon called ‘Tarzan chameleon’ has been discovered in a tiny patch of forest on the vast Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, a new study says.
According to National Geographic News, the five-inch-long (13-centimeter-long) Calumma tarzan lives in the Tarzan Forest, near the village formerly known as Tarzanville.
The team thought naming the new species after the vine-swinging “ape man” might be a good way to “promote the conservation of this species and of course of the forest that it’s living in,” according to Philip-Sebastian Gehring, an evolutionary biologist at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany.
After all, “Tarzan stands for a jungle hero and fighting for protecting the forest,” Gehring said.
Gehring and colleagues suspect the Tarzan chameleon will be labelled as a critically endangered species. Even so, the team found up to 60 chameleons in one fragment alone, suggesting the new species can still come out swinging.
The study is published August 20 in the journal Salamandra. (ANI)
