Reptilia · Squamata
Brookesia nanaGlaw, Köhler, Hawlitschek, Ratsoavina, Rakotoarison, Scherz, Vences, 2021
Nano Chameleon
Photograph by Frank Glaw, Jörn Köhler, Oliver Hawlitschek, Fanomezana M.…, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons
A ground-dwelling chameleon from the Madagascan region, reaching 19 mm snout to vent.
Also called Sorata Stub-tailed Chameleon.
Reptilia › Squamata › Chamaeleonidae › Brookesia
Longer than only 0% of all chameleons anyone has measured.
The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 18.2 to 300 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.
What is known
19 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 19.2mm0.8 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 19.2mm0.8 in
Glaw et al. 2021
How it lives
- Where it lives
- Terrestrial
- Region
- Madagascan
- Mainland or island
- Found only on islands
- Elevation · above sea level
- 1280–1340m
Glaw et al. mention "their forest floor habitat" in relation to miniature Brookesia, and also write "Miniaturized Brookesia species were intensively sought during the day on the ground and at night with torchlight." I assume it is terrestrial
1280-1339 (Glaw et al. 2021)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 2eggs
Glaw et al. 2021, n = 1
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Acrodontia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Glaw, Köhler, Hawlitschek, Ratsoavina, Rakotoarison, Scherz, Vences
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 2021
- Type locality
- Madagascar
Keeping one
3 in × 3 in × 2 in(8 × 8 × 5 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 0.8 in (19.2 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Nano Chameleon. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · snout to vent
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · greatest
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — Body mass · adult female, mean
- — Body mass at hatching
- — Longest recorded life
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Diet
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How it hunts
- — Active
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Average clutch
- — Mean clutch · smallest reported
- — Mean clutch · largest reported
- — Clutches in a year
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Colour on the back
- — Pattern on the back
- — Pupil
- — Sex decided by
- — Conservation status
- — Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- — Population trend
- — Red List criteria
- — Biome
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Habitat
- — Active in
- — Range size
Others in Chamaeleonidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Brookesia nana. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/brookesia-nana
@misc{brookesia_nana_2026,
title = {Brookesia nana},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/brookesia-nana}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.