Where my taxonomists at? In need of clarification

[holmesese]

I will be presenting a lecture on the family Chameleonidae for a herpetology class at UGA in few weeks and I want to make sure I have my taxonomy correct.

In most older books and papers I have found the family Chameleonidae divided into two subfamilies:

Subfamily - Brookesiinae – Dwarf Chameleons
Brookesia - 26 species
Rieppeleon – 3 species
Rhapmpholeon – 13 species

Subfamily - Chamaeleoninae – True chameleons
Bradypodion – 8 species
Calumma – 31 species
Chamaeleo – 53 species
Furcifer – 20 species
Kinyongia – 16 species
Nadzikambia – 1 species

Most recent source:
Henkel, F and Schmidt, W.2000. Amphibians and reptile of Madagascar and the Mascarene, Seychelles, and Comoro Islands


However, in the most recent publication they are simply divided into 6 extant genera:

Bradypodion - 24 species
Brookesia - 26 species
Calumma - 31 species
Chamaeleo - 54 species
Furcifer - 20 species
Rhampholeon - 16 species

Vitt L.J. and Caldwell J.P., 2009. Herpetology: An Introduction Biology of Amphibians and Reptiles. 3rd Edition. Academic Press, Burlington, Ma, USA

Interestingly I also noticed a chameleon in the book that looked quite similar to a female F. pardalis but was conspicuously labeled as Calumma pardalis I am assuming that was simply an editorial error.

Since the family Chamaeleonidae has undergone substantial revision in the past few years I was just wondering if it has been re-arranged as of late and I missed the paper. Genetic and mitochondrial DNA analysis have shown that many genera of extant chameleons are not classified according to their evolutionary relationships, but I am not for sure if changes to the taxonomy were actually implemented (Townsend T. and Larson A. 2001, Matthee, C. et al.2004).

Any thoughts??? If you can find papers they would be especially helpful!

 

[Chris Anderson]

The subfamily designation Brookesiinae/Chamaeleoninae is not monophyletic and probably should be dropped. There are currently 10 recognized genera of chameleon: Bradypodion, Brookesia, Calumma, Chamaeleo, Furcifer, Kinyongia, Nadzikambia, Rhampholeon, Rieppeleon, and Trioceros. The status of some species/subspecies are debated so it is difficult to assign a number to some of the genera but there are a little over 200 species and subspecies.

I don't have the 3rd edition of Vitt & Caldwell but it sounds like it is far from accurate in this case.

Chris

 

[holmesese]

Thanks for the info, I think the Vitt and Caldwell book is great for most families, but the Chameleon taxonomy was definitely a mess.

In addition to the subfamilies that were not monophyletic it seems to me that several of the genera are simply "junk drawers" where species with unknown phylogenies are dumped.

 

[Chris Anderson]

Yes, Calumma in particular is not monophyletic. I would not be surprised if it was split into two or three genera in the next couple years.

Chris