Madagascar A chameleon that synchronises its death with others born at the same time has won the dubious distinction of being the shortest-lived four-legged animal in the world.
After only four to five months of clambering around a dry region of Madagascar the entire adult population of the chameleons die of old age within days of one another. Furcifer labordi takes longer to develop as an embryo in the safety of the egg than it spends in the open air after hatching. The adults never live to see their offspring born.
Zoologists from the United States and Madagascar studying the