The phylogenetic relationships of the African mainland species of the genus Rhampholeon (formerly referred to the genus Brookesia) with respect to Brookesia superciliaris, Bradypodion pumilus, and the genus Chamaeleo are analysed. Rhampholeon constitutes a genus well separated from Brookesia and may itself be subdivided in two subgroups on the basis of characters derived from the nasal and parietal complexes. A final section investigates problems of cladistic analysis, viz. the relationship of parsimony to character weighting, and pattern versus process as complementary perspectives of character analysis and coding.
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Olivier Rieppel (1987) studied this question.