Meeting Abstract
Chameleons (Chamaeleonidae) use their tails in different ways. Typically, chameleons have an arboreal lifestyle and use their prehensile tails for anchoring and as a support for their acrobatics. There are some genera however, that have a terrestrial lifestyle, such as Brookesia and Rieppeleon species. This study focuses on the morphological variation in the tail skeleton associated with these lifestyles and how this can be used to explain what makes a tail prehensile. Both interspecific and intra-individual variation in skeletal tail morphology is investigated. We want to link interspecific variation to the overall differences in tail use, whereas regional variation should give us more information on the regional variation in tail use. For this, different species representing each genus of prehensile and non-prehensile chameleons were µCT scanned, and a 3D morphometrical analysis was performed on the vertebral shape. This study found that there are differences between prehensile and non-prehensile chameleons. Non-prehensile tailed species namely have a shorter tail with less vertebrae whereby these vertebrae generally have a shorter neural spine and a transverse process which is positioned more anteriorly. The functional implications of this pattern will be further discussed, relying on muscle attachment sites.
