Chamaeleo monachus

The Socotran chameleon is a species of chameleon endemic to the island of Socotra. When alarmed, it makes a hissing noise, and depending on its mood, it may change color. It is endangered by overgrazing, and is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN Red List. The Socotran chameleon lives in dense shrubland, along wadis, and sometimes in palm plantations.

Chamaeleo monachus

no rights reserved · CC0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
Socotran chameleonPBDB
Sits inside
ChamaeleoPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 12 thousand years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 11.7 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pleistocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesHolocene — about 2 of 2 occurrences17 ka–0 Mya — about 2 occurrences512 ka0 Mya

2 occurrences of Chamaeleo monachus on record, most of them in the Holocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Chamaeleo monachus and its relatives

Holocene

Where Chamaeleo monachus and its relatives were recorded in the Holocene.

Found in the same rock

30 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Chamaeleo monachus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

1 reference

Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Chamaeleo monachus

Credit
no rights reserved
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Chamaeleo monachus was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Gray 1865