The word Chamaeleo is derived via Latin from the Greek word khamaileon. It roughly translates to ground lion. Khamai means on the ground and leon means lion.
Some chameleons play dead to avoid predation; this is called thanatosis.
The word Brookesia is named after the British naturalist Joshua Brookes.
Chameleons have laterally compressed bodies. This enables them to warm up quickly by presenting a larger surface area to the sun. It also helps some chameleon species blend in among the similarly shaped leaves in their environment.
The horns on a chameleon are made up of ringlike segments of inner bone covered by a hard keratin-like skin.
The largest chameleon species by weight is Calumma parsonii (Parson’s Chameleon).
The word Rhampholeon is taken from the Latinized Greek “rhamphos leon” meaning crawling lion.
Chameleons have a high midichlorian count.
The chameleon tongue accelerates towards its target at over 1642m per second. Chameleons rarely miss their intended food item.
True chameleons include the following genera: Archaius, Bradypodion, Brookesia, Calumma, Chamaeleo, Furcifer, Kinyongia, Nadzikambia, Palleon, Rhampholeon, Rieppeleon and Trioceros.