The word Bradypodion comes from the latin “bradus podos” or slow foot.
The word Rhampholeon is taken from the Latinized Greek “rhamphos leon” meaning crawling lion.
The chameleon tongue accelerates towards its target at over 1642m per second. Chameleons rarely miss their intended food item.
The word Rieppeleon is named after the scientist Olivier Rieppel.
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.
Chameleons have a very poor sense of smell.
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!
Trioceros schubotzi can be found at elevations as high as 4500m.
Trioceros goetzei (Goetze’s Chameleon) emits an audible, high pitched whistle when threatened.