I learned last night on a special about Madagascar that there is a Chameleon that is so specialized that its life span is only 3 months. It's because for 9 months there is no rain. So the eggs take 9 months to hatch. The babies come out with the first drops of rain. They are full size at 2 months and spend the last months breeding and lay eggs and then they all die shortly after.
They were very pretty. The males were bright green with various spots of color and the females were almost black with colored spots that just popped.
I can't remember the species name. It's likely to come on again over the weekend.
Last edited by MasonC2K; 06-15-2012 at 04:21 PM.
- Meison Kurisu desu http://www.iherp.com/MasonReptiles
1.0 Albino (Inuyasha), 0.1 Albino Pewter (Daisy)
1.0 Cinny (Caspian), 0.1 Fire (Kirara)
0.1 Kingpin (Cocoa), 1.1 Pastel (Alex and Sango)
0.1 Pewter (Lily), 0.1 Pinstripe (Kagome)
1.0 Spider (Jacob AKA Jake)
1.0 Super Pastel (Koga)
1.1 YB Enchies,
0.1 100% Het Albino (Kikiyo)
1.0 100% Het Pied (Taiyo)
0.8 Normals-females (Chloe, Sammy, Ziva, Ayame, Rin, Blaire, Natalie, & Charlotte)
0.1 Albino RTB (Sunshine)
1.0 African Grey (Bobbie)
1.4 Guinea Pigs (Jamie, Joey, Luka, Leia, and Katara)
0.0.1 Chinese Water Dragon (George)
1.0 Rex Rabbit (Reggie) & 1.0 Holland Lop Rabbit (Pepper)
0.1 Wife (Chanin)
Damn I dont get any of those channels. Im on a budget so I only get a few mostly childrens channels for me and my daughter and I do get NatGeo but its not NatGeo wild so kinda bummed about that...
Thinking of this species stresses me out. Seriously, reading your post, and thinking about how delicate their entire population is, and how exact everything must be for their lives to work... makes me anxious. I mean.. if something happens, an entire population (or close to) could be wiped out very quickly. Wow!
I learned last night on a special about Madagascar that there is a Chameleon that is so specialized that its life span is only 3 months. It's because for 9 months there is no rain. So the eggs take 9 months to hatch. The babies come out with the first drops of rain. They are full size at 2 months and spend the last months breeding and lay eggs and then they all die shortly after.
They were very pretty. The males were bright green with various spots of color and the females were almost black with colored spots that just popped.
I can't remember the species name. It's likely to come on again over the weekend.
That is amazing.
OK, I'm evil. I'm wondering if it takes them nine months to develop in the egg, or if it doesn't and they're merely cued into breaking dormancy by the presence of water, like brine shrimp. Most animals with that kind of life cycle have eggs that stay dormant until they're triggered by moisture. Most of them have very short hatch times once water is available.
Wow! If someone could get colonies of those going, think of the potential there for instant feeder lizards....