Calumma benovskyi

Calumma benovskyi is an extinct species of chameleon of the Calumma genus. While species of this genus are only found on Madagascar today, C. benovskyi was discovered in the Miocene sediments of Kenya. This indicates that the genus and even chameleons as a whole did not originate on Madagascar, as often held previously, but on continental Africa. This matches with several prior studies that favor an African origin of the group both based on phylogenetic results and the ocean currents present between Africa and Madagascar during much of the Paleogene and Neogene. Additionally, since C. benovskyi was found to be a rather derived member of its genus, this would necessitate a much greater, as of yet unknown diversity of chameleons from the Oligocene and Miocene of Africa.

Calumma benovskyi

Čerňanský, A.; Herrel, A.; Kibii, J.M.; Anderson, C.V.; Boistel, R.; Lehmann, T. · CC BY 4.0 · 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
Sits inside
CalummaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At most 4.5 million years on record.

The one occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 20.45 Mya and 15.98 Mya, which is a dating window rather than a span.

Miocene — about 1 of 1 occurrenceMiocene21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20.9 Mya15.5 Mya

1 occurrence of Calumma benovskyi on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

1 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.

Found in

1 formation

Hiwegi — 0.40°S, 34.17°E

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The named rock units Calumma benovskyi has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Calumma benovskyi and its relatives

Miocene

Where Calumma benovskyi and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

3 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 1 site for Calumma benovskyi, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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 1 occurrence 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 Calumma benovskyi

Credit
Čerňanský, A.; Herrel, A.; Kibii, J.M.; Anderson, C.V.; Boistel, R.; Lehmann, T.
Licence
CC BY 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Calumma benovskyi was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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

What may have been alongside itCalumma through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Čerňanský et al. 2020