On: ‘Smallest reptile on earth’ discovered in Madagasc...

[ralfd]

Maybe the limit is not function, but being competitive. Insects don’t have lungs and an open instead of closed circulatory system, with a tubular “heart” sloshing around hemolymph instead of blood. At this small size this should have advantages?

[pitspotter → ralfd]

Yes, and I was thinking about its eyes.

The human eyeball has diameter roughly equal to the entire length of this lizard, making its volume 10,000X larger than the lizard's eyeball.

OTOH, with a pupil that small, visual depth of field must be large. So perhaps the nano-chameleon doesn't need to do much in the way of focussing.

Small wonder they took so long to discover :-p

[pdpi → pitspotter]

> OTOH, with a pupil that small, visual depth of field must be large.

But the pupil is also small enough that diffraction is a major issue so their visual acuity is probably quite poor

[pitspotter → pdpi]

Good point. So it can also 'get away with' having tiny retinas, since there's less information available to resolve.