Calumma brevicorne
species of reptile
Calumma brevicorne, the short-horned chameleon, is a species of chameleon endemic to Madagascar.
Description
The short-horned chameleon has a compressed body, spindly limbs, grasping feet and a prehensile tail allowing it to negotiate the branches and twigs of its arboreal habitat. The most distinctive features of the short-horned chameleon are its large, ear-like occipital lobes, and the short bony rostral appendage that projects from the snout of the male. When threatened, it raises its ear-like flaps to increase its apparent size and attacks with an open mouth. The short-horned chameleon is generally grayish in color, although there is variation between the sexes and across the species' range, with the slightly larger males having a lighter colored head, and some specimens being greener and having blue legs.
Distribution
The short-horned chameleon is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, and is calculated to have a population density of 2.4 chameleons ha−1 in the forests around Andasibe-Mantadia National Park and Analamazaotra Special Reserve. C. brevicornis is endemic to Madagascar and has a broad latitudinal distribution in eastern Madagascar, between the Anosy Mountains in the south and the Tsaratanana Massif in the north, and has also been confirmed from the Analavory Plateau in the northwest, within a narrow elevation band between 810 and 1,000 m. Most records of this species need to be reevaluated, and therefore its geographic range information is incomplete, however, the few verified records of this species are scattered over an area of at least 38,000 km2.
Habitat and ecology
This species lives within mid-altitude humid forest, where it is more commonly found in open vegetation associated with edges and disturbed areas. It is tolerant of some degree of habitat modification and has been found in agricultural land where trees are present, in roadside vegetation and in trees near buildings.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Calumma brevicorne” as species of reptile. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of reptile. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1794440. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Calumma brevicorne” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.