Many chameleon species have a bright red, orange or yellow mouth. This conspicuous interior when displayed is used as a defense against predators.
There are currently 202 recognized chameleon species and 85 of them are found on the island of Madagascar.
The word Kinyongia is from the Swahili word for chameleons: Kinyonga.
The word Bradypodion comes from the latin “bradus podos” or slow foot.
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!
The horns on a chameleon are made up of ringlike segments of inner bone covered by a hard keratin-like skin.
The word Rhampholeon is taken from the Latinized Greek “rhamphos leon” meaning crawling lion.
The oldest known chameleon fossil is from the extinct species Chamaeleo caroliquarti. It was found in Europe and is 26 million years old.
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.
Pygmy chameleons are sometimes referred to as False Chameleons. This term is actually incorrect and is in reference to anoles, particularly the Cuban False Anole.