i think that this speculation is possible.
In the new handbook of François Le Berre, he speak that to may be there are natural hybrid for Furcifer Tuzetae of F. verrucossus and F. antimena, and for Furcifer belalandaensis of F.antimena and F.Lateralis.
Why not?
Unfortunately there is a lot of speculation and very little justification about some of these rarer species being hybrids between two common species. I think in most cases it is an attempt to try to explain why they are so rare but rarely has there been any type of justification or evidence to support these thoughts. Two examples I can think of off the top of my head are T. pfefferi and Ch. calyptratus calcarifer.
It was suggested in the past that T. pfefferi is a hybrid between T. montium and T. quadricornis. This too seemed possible due to the presumed rarity of T. pfefferi, its sympatric records with T. montium and T. quadricornis and the intermediate morphology between the latter two species. As more T. pfefferi specimens have been found, however, it seems that few people, if anyone, thinks they are a hybrid species any longer.
In the case of Ch. calyptratus calcarifer, there was speculation that this subspecies was a hybrid between Ch. calyptratus and Ch. arabicus. In this case, however, captive crosses between these two species resulted in animals that resemble Ch. calyptratus calcarifer, thus giving at least some support for this theory.
I would never say it wasn't possible that a couple of these rare species are hybrids, as suggested, but the support for such theories is lacking. Molecular analysis of these species could help clarify their taxonomic origins.
Chris
