Chris Anderson
Dr. House of Chameleons
I thought I'd let everyone know that a new chameleon species was just described from the Lendu Plateau of northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on the west side of Lake Albert. It is the sister species to Kinyongia adolfifriderici and superficially looks very similar. It is only known from an area that has been heavily logged and may be severely threatened as a result as the primary forests in the area are essentially gone. It has been named Kinyongia gyrolepis in reference to the enlarged circular scales that are found on its flanks.
As I mentioned, this species looks very similar to Kinyongia adolfifriderici except its is slightly larger and has enlarged circular scales on the dorsal half of its flanks. Neither sex have rostral protuberances, gular crests or ventral crests but but have a short dorsal crest which is more pronounced in males.
Here is the reference to the paper:
Greenbaum, E., Tolley, K. A., Joma, A. and Kusamba, C. (2012). A new species of chameleon (Sauria: Chamaeleonidae: Kinyongia) from the northern Albertine Rift, Central Africa. Herpetologica 68(1), 60-75.
The abstract of the paper can be seen here: http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1655/HERPETOLOGICA-D-11-00026.1
Chris
As I mentioned, this species looks very similar to Kinyongia adolfifriderici except its is slightly larger and has enlarged circular scales on the dorsal half of its flanks. Neither sex have rostral protuberances, gular crests or ventral crests but but have a short dorsal crest which is more pronounced in males.
Here is the reference to the paper:
Greenbaum, E., Tolley, K. A., Joma, A. and Kusamba, C. (2012). A new species of chameleon (Sauria: Chamaeleonidae: Kinyongia) from the northern Albertine Rift, Central Africa. Herpetologica 68(1), 60-75.
The abstract of the paper can be seen here: http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1655/HERPETOLOGICA-D-11-00026.1
Chris
