Madagascar lizards, an overlooked seed disperser

[Catherine]

Plant biodiversity is dependent on animals to spread their seeds. Mostly this is done by birds and mammals. However that is not the whole picture. 
In Madagascar there are three lizards that play a role in seed dispersal. The Malagasy Giant Chameleon, Cuvier's Madagascar Swift and the Western Girdled Lizard all play a role seed dispersal. They found evidence of 20 different seeds in their poop. These are seeds that the Lemurs do not disperse.
There still needs to be further study, but clearly these lizards are doing something.

https://phys.org/news/2025-06-overlooked...-seed.html

We are used to seeing big animals eating lots of fruit and spreading seeds. The quiet ones, like the lizards, are up there in the trees eating fruit and moving on and dropping the seeds as they go. Their droppings are smaller so they are not even noticed, but they still do the job. We may find that reptiles are more important to ecosystems than we thought. It is an understudied area. Who knows what we will find out.