Reuters

A file picture shows a 'Brookesia micra' chameleon balance on the tip of a match, March 16, 2007. The so-called 'Brookesia micra' chameleon, believed to be the world smallest, has been discovered on the island of Madagascar, German and American biologists announced on February 16, 2012. The lizard, with a 16-millimetre body, measures 29 millimeters with its tail full extended.

Reuters reports: The miniature lizard - "Brookesia micra" - reaches a maximum length of 29mm, and was discovered by a team of German and American researchers on the island of Nosy Hara, just off the northern coast of Madagascar.

"During the day it is very hard to find the chameleons, because they are very tiny and don't move very much," Frank Glaw, scientist at the Zoological State Collection in Munich, Germany, told Reuters TV on Thursday. The species was one of four types of tiny chameleons found in Madagascar, believed to be among the smallest reptiles in the world.