NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Matschie’s two-horned chamaeleon
Kinyongia matschiei (Werner, 1895)
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Matschie’s two-horned chamaeleon (Kinyongia matschiei)
John Lyakurwa · CC BY 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Kinyongia matschiei, common name giant monkey-tailed east Usambara two-horned chameleon, giant east Usambara blade-horned chameleon, and Matschie's two-horned chameleon, is a species of chameleon from the East Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. It was formerly confused with K. fischeri, which is not found in the range of K. matschiei.
K. matschiei is the largest species in the genus Kinyongia at up to 41.3 cm (16.3 in) in total length, although the female remains smaller than the male at up to 36.0 cm (14.2 in). The adult male has a long pair of "horns" on the nose, which can be parallel or divergent; they are much smaller in the female.
Wikipedia contributors, Kinyongia matschiei; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T12:22:25.287017+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Kinyongia matschiei (Werner, 1895)
- Name authority
- (Werner, 1895)
- Common name
- Matschie’s two-horned chamaeleon
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Chamaeleonidae
- Genus
- Kinyongia
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
- suborderIguania
- familyChamaeleonidae
- genusKinyongia
- speciesKinyongia matschiei (Werner, 1895)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Kinyongia. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Fischer’s chameleonKinyongia fischeri (Reichenow, 1887) | ChamaeleonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Circular-scaled ChameleonKinyongia gyrolepis Greenbaum, Tolley, Joma & Kusamba, 2012 | ChamaeleonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Magombera chameleonKinyongia magomberae Menegon, Tolley, Jones, Rovero, Marshall & Tilbury, 2009 | ChamaeleonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| West Usambara two-horned chamaeleonKinyongia multituberculata (Nieden, 1913) | ChamaeleonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Kilimanjaro two-horned chamaeleonKinyongia tavetana (Steindachner, 1891) | ChamaeleonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Matschie's Dwarf ChameleonKinyongia tenuis (Matschie, 1892) | ChamaeleonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Uluguru two-horned chamaeleonKinyongia uluguruensis (Loveridge, 1957) | ChamaeleonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Carpenter’s chameleonKinyongia carpenteri (Parker, 1929) | ChamaeleonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Ituri chameleonKinyongia adolfifriderici (Sternfeld, 1912) | ChamaeleonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Mount-Nyiro Bearded ChameleonKinyongia asheorum Nečas, Sindaco, Korený, Kopecná, Malonza & Modrý, 2009 | ChamaeleonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Böhme’s two-horned chamaeleonKinyongia boehmei (Lutzmann & Nečas, 2002) | ChamaeleonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Mt Kenya hornless chameleonKinyongia excubitor (Barbour, 1911) | ChamaeleonidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Chamaeleon matschiei Werner, 1896 Werner, 1896 | synonym |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Kinyongia&species=matschiei Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3R882. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.