A new species of chameleon (Sauria: Chamaeleonidae) from the highlands of northwest Kenya JAN STIPALA (UK), NICOLA LUTZMÁNN (Germany), PATRICK K. MALONZA (Kenya), LUCA BORGH-ESIO (USA), PAUL WILKINSON (UK), BRENDAN GODLEY (UK), MATTHEW R. EVANS (UK)

Abstract

A new species of chameleon, Trioceros nyirit sp. nov., is described from the northwest highlands of Kenya. It is morphologically similar to T. hoehnelii and T. narraioca, possessing a short rostral appendage, but differs from them by having a straight or weakly curved parietal crest and forward-pointing rostral projection. A phylogeny based on mitochondrial DNA shows that the proposed new taxon is a distinct clade within the bitaeniatus-group and a sister lineage to T. schubotzi. Its distribution appears to be restricted to the Cherangani Hills and adjacent Mtelo massif to the north. It is associated with afromontane forest edge, afroalpine ericaceous vegetation and also occurs in agricultural landscapes.

A new chameleon of the Trioceros affinis species complex (Squamata, Chamaeleonidae) from Ethiopia

“…Accordingly, the population level relationships within the T. affinis complex might be considered analogous to previous estimations of the T. bitaeniatus species complex or at least subgroups like the T. rudis group (Rand 1963). Resulting from detailed comparative and extensive examinations of those groups and complexes, various taxa are treated now as species (Tilbury 1991;Nečas et al 2003Nečas et al , 2005Krause and Böhme 2010;Stipala et al 2011). Phylogenetic divergence within the T. affinis complex, but also other taxa, e.g.…”

“…Scale counts were made using a stereo microscope and morphological measurements were taken with a vernier caliper to the nearest 0.1 mm. Morphometric features for the morphological analyses were selected based on previous taxonomic studies of chameleons (Nečas 1994;Nečas et al 2005;Barej et al 2010;Stipala et al 2011;Greenbaum et al 2012). In addition to these meristic and quantitative mensural characters, we added three qualitative morphological features in order to account for the presence and characterisation of the prominent, distinctive patterns of the head, body and dorsal crest scalation.…”

“…Kulal), T. ntunte (Mt. Nyiru) and T. nyirit (Mtelo Massif) from Kenya (Nečas et al 2003(Nečas et al , 2005Stipala et al 2011Stipala et al , 2012.…”