Chamaeleo

Chamaeleo is a genus of chameleons in the family Chamaeleonidae. Most species of the genus Chamaeleo are found in sub-Saharan Africa, but a few species are also present in northern Africa, southern Europe, and southern Asia east to India and Sri Lanka.

Chamaeleo

BS Thurner Hof · Public Domain · 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
ChamaeleonidaePBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Amniota

Time the record covers

At least 16 million years on record.

The record covers at least 16.9 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 20.45 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 15 of 19 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 19 occurrencesPleistocene — about 2 of 19 occurrencesPleistocene21–20 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–18 Mya — about 1 occurrence18–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–17 Mya — about 1 occurrence17–16 Mya — about 2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–15 Mya — about 2 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 2 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.4–698 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences698 ka–0 Mya — about 4 occurrences16.9 Mya11.7 ka20.9 Mya0 Mya

19 occurrences of Chamaeleo on record, most of them in the Miocene. 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

19 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

4 formations

Upper Freshwater Molasse — 48.44°N, 11.04°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.63°N, 11.80°EUpper Freshwater Molasse — 48.16°N, 10.11°EBrackwater Molasse — 48.48°N, 10.10°EMost — 50.42°N, 13.36°EVille — 50.90°N, 6.45°E

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The named rock units Chamaeleo has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 11 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Chamaeleo and its relatives

Miocene

Where Chamaeleo and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

463 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Chamaeleo, 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

13 references

Each of the 19 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. 1 further reference is not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Chamaeleo

Credit
BS Thurner Hof
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Chamaeleo chamaeleon · MVZ:Herp:MVZ:Herp:236480

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
yoniren2
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

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 itChamaeleonidae through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Laurenti 1768