The Brookesia nana, an ultra-compact chameleon, is tiny enough to perch comfortably on a fingertip.
超小型變色龍Brookesia nana非常小，小到可以舒適地棲息在指尖上。
PARIS (AFP) - Scientists have identified Earth's smallest known reptile, warning at the same time that sustained destruction of forests in northern Madagascar threatens its survival.
巴黎(法新社)--科學家已經確認了地球上已知的最小的爬行動物，同時警告說，馬達加斯加北部森林的持續破壞威脅到它的生存。
Tiny enough to perch comfortably on a fingertip, the ultra-compact chameleon - dubbed Brookesia nana - has the same proportions and world-weary expression as its larger cousins around the world.
小到可以舒適地棲息在指尖上的超緊湊變色龍-被稱為Brookesia nana-與世界各地較大的表親有著相同的比例和厭世表情。
"We discovered it in the mountains of northern of Madagascar," Frank Glaw, curator of herpetology at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, told AFP in an interview.
巴伐利亞州立動物博物館的爬行動物學館長弗蘭克·格勞在接受法新社採訪時說：「我們在馬達加斯加北部的山區發現了它。」
A joint expedition in 2012 of German and Malagasy scientists did not know whether the two specimens collected - one female and one male - were adults until much later, he explained.
他解釋說，2012年由德國和馬達加斯加科學家組成的聯合考察隊直到很久以後才知道收集到的兩個樣本-一雌一雄-是否是成年個體。
"We found out that the female had eggs in her body, and that the male had large genitals, so it was clear that they were adults."
「我們發現雌性的身體裡有卵子，而雄性的生殖器很大，所以很明顯它們是成年個體。」
Exceptionally large genitals, it turned out, accounting for nearly 20 per cent of its body size, Glaw and colleagues reported in the journal Scientific Reports.
格勞和他的同事在《科學報告》雜誌上報導，結果發現，它的生殖器非常大，佔其身體大小的近20%。
The male's body - about the size of a peanut - was 13.5 millimetres long (half an inch), with the tail adding another nine millimetres.
雄性的身體-大約花生大小-有13.5毫米長(半英寸)，尾巴又增加了9毫米。
By contrast, the female measured 29 mm from its nose to the tip of its tail.
相比之下，雌性從鼻子到尾巴尖端的長度為29毫米。
The pair remain the only specimens of the species ever found.
這兩個物種仍然是目前發現的該物種中僅有的兩個樣本。
Islands connected long ago to neighbouring continents are known for miniaturised versions of animals that crossed ephemeral land bridges, a phenomenon known as "island dwarfism".
很久以前與鄰近大陸相連的島嶼，以穿越短暫的大陸橋的動物的微型版本而聞名，這種現象被稱為「島嶼矮化」。
"There are numerous extremely miniaturised vertebrates in Madagascar, including the smallest primates and some of the smallest frogs in the world," said co-author Andolalao Rakotoarison of the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar.
「馬達加斯加有許多極其小型化的脊椎動物，包括世界上最小的靈長類動物和一些最小的青蛙，」馬達加斯加塔那那利佛大學的合著者安多拉勞·阿庫圖阿里森(Andolalao Rakotoarison)說。
But the "island effect" does not apply to B. nana, which lives exclusively in mountainous regions some 1,300 metres (4,200 feet) above sea level, the researchers concluded.
但研究人員得出結論，這種「島嶼效應」並不適用於短尾藻，它只生活在海拔1300米(4200英尺)的山區。
"We have no good explanation as to why this species is so small," said Glaw.
格勞說：「對於為什麼這個物種這麼小，我們沒有很好的解釋。」
What scientists do know is that the diminutive reptiles are likely teetering on the edge of extinction, even if the International Union for the Conservation for Nature (IUCN) - keepers of the Red List of threatened species - has yet to do an assessment.
科學家們所知道的是，這種迷你的爬行動物很可能正徘徊在滅絕的邊緣，即使國際自然保護聯盟(IUCN)-瀕危物種紅色名單的守護者-還沒有對其生存概率進行評估。
"Habitat destruction is the biggest threat to the amphibians and reptiles of Madagascar," said Glaw.
格勞說：「棲息地的破壞是馬達加斯加兩棲和爬行動物面臨的最大威脅。」
"Maybe in the future it will be climate change, but for now it is deforestation." Since the mid-20th century, Madagascar has lost about 45 per cent of its forest cover.
「也許未來會是氣候變化，但目前是森林砍伐。」自20世紀中葉以來，馬達加斯加的森林覆蓋率已下降約45%。
B. nana and another mini-chameleon discovered by Glaw and his colleagues on a small island off the coast of Madagascar are especially vulnerable because their range is so small.
格勞和他的同事們在馬達加斯加海岸外的一個小島上發現的B.nana和另一種迷你變色龍特別容易受到攻擊，因為它們的活動範圍太小了。
Brookesia micra lives on less than two square kilometres," Glaw explained.
Brookesia Micra生活在不到兩平方公裡的土地上，「Glaw解釋說。
"One big catastrophic event - a forest fire - and the population might be lost very quickly."
「一場重大的災難性事件--森林大火--人口可能很快就會消失。」
Madagascar in a global "biodiversity hotspot", accounting for five percent of the world's unique plant and animal species.
馬達加斯加位於全球「生物多樣性熱點」，佔世界獨特動植物物種的百分之五。
The island nation has one of the highest rates of poverty in the world, and lacks resources for conservation and natural resource management.
這個島國是世界上貧困率最高的國家之一，缺乏保護和自然資源管理的資源。
World's tiniest reptile found in Madagascar