NEW YORK, July 3 (UPI) -- U.S. and Malagasy scientists say they've discovered a chameleon from southwest Madagascar that spends up to three-quarters of its life inside an egg.
The newly discovered life history among the 28,300 species of known tetrapods, or four-legged animals with backbones, is even more unusual since, after hatching, its lifespan is only four to five months. The researchers say no other known four-legged animal has such a rapid growth rate and such a short life span.
"It really is a huge surprise," said Christopher Raxworthy, associate curator of herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History. "Adding to that, until now, the short life span of chameleons in captivity has always been considered as a failure to thrive. We need to rethink this."
The chameleon described in the study, Furcifer labordi, not only has a brief, yearly life cycle, but the bulk of that time is spent incubating inside an egg.
The research that included Kristopher Karsten, an Oklahoma State University graduate student who discovered the unusual life cycle, is reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
