Chameleons have a very poor sense of smell.
The word Kinyongia is from the Swahili word for chameleons: Kinyonga.
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 word Rhampholeon is taken from the Latinized Greek “rhamphos leon” meaning crawling lion.
Some chameleons play dead to avoid predation; this is called thanatosis.
Furcifer oustaleti (Oustalet’s Chameleon) is the longest chameleon species reaching lengths of 27 inches (68cm).
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.
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.
Chameleons can project their tongue up to 2.2 times their body length.