The smallest chameleon species is Brookesia micra with an adult length just over 1 inch (29mm). It hatches from an egg no bigger than a grain of rice!
Chameleons do have taste buds on their tongue but overall they have a poor sense of taste.
The word Bradypodion comes from the latin “bradus podos” or slow foot.
Pygmy chameleons have bicuspid claws where each claw has two points like a crescent moon.
The horns on a chameleon are made up of ringlike segments of inner bone covered by a hard keratin-like skin.
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.
The chameleon tongue accelerates towards its target at over 1642m per second. Chameleons rarely miss their intended food item.
The word Furcifer is derived from the Latin word “furci” or forked.
The word Brookesia is named after the British naturalist Joshua Brookes.
The word Calumma comes from the Latin word for covering. This genus consists of chameleons from Madagascar with occipital lobes.