Karsten et al, reporting in this month’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Subscription required for full access), describe the extrodinary life history of a chameleon species Furcifer labordi which spends more time incubating in the egg than living outside it. F. labordi’s incubation period is 8-9 months, they reach sexual maturity within 2 months of hatching then live for a further 2-3 months.
Because they are annually hatching as one age cohort, they all die off within a short space of time prior to replacement in the next life cycle by their incubating offspring. This life history strategy is unkown in over 28,000 other tetrapod (four limbed) vertebrate species but might explain the incidence of rapid deaths of chameleons in captivity.
