Funky-Nosed "Pinocchio" Chameleons Get A Boost As They Turn Out To Be Multiple Species

More than 40 percent of all known chameleon species live on the island of Madagascar. Among those species is a group called the Calumma gallus species complex, which contains the "Pinocchio" chameleons, featuring males with all sorts of funky nose appendages. These fancy extras have been the main way of telling different species apart for around 150 years, but thanks to some nifty genetics, DNA has revealed that the known chameleons are actually more than one species.

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Historic data on the C. gallus complex have often not considered the distribution or the genetics involved, and only a few records contain photographs of different species. This has led to an incomplete picture of the species within this group.

Fortunately, by looking a lot closer at both the historical data and the new DNA results of these chameleons, a new study has made a few discoveries. Calumma nasutum, for example, has been moved into the C. gallus species complex despite not having a fancy nose appendage. As a result, some populations of chameleon once considered to be C. nasutum have now been found to be a new separate species called Calumma hofreiteri.

C. gallus species are now said to be defined by their “distinctly elongated and serrated rostral appendages,” explain the authors, but the most divergent of the species complex is another new species that's now the “true” Pinocchio chameleon (Calumma pinocchio), which has a comparatively smooth-edged nose appendage. 

“The genetic analyses are conclusive: the nose chameleons have virtually fooled previous research,” said first author Dr Frank Glaw from the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (SNSB) in a statement. “Our study also revealed that the nasal appendages can change quickly in terms of length, shape, and color. Their evolution is possibly driven by the respective preferences of females in mate selection.” 

The researchers aren’t quite sure how having a fancy nose appendage fits into the daily lives of the chameleons, but suggest it as a future area of research to learn more about the evolution of these unusual structures. 

The team also used historic specimens collected in museums to build up a more complete picture of how all of these species are related. “The study shows the great potential of the new museomics methods to correctly identify historically collected specimens especially in species complexes,” added study author Professor Miguel Vences from the Technical University of Braunschweig.

Given the latest updates to the species list from this study, exactly 100 chameleon species are now found in Madagascar, with a total of 236 across the world.  It is suggested that both C. pinocchio and C nasutum be listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List due to their small distributions and therefore vulnerability to habitat loss. 

The study is published in Salamandra.