The horns on a chameleon are made up of ringlike segments of inner bone covered by a hard keratin-like skin.
Trioceros schubotzi can be found at elevations as high as 4500m.
Trioceros goetzei (Goetze’s Chameleon) emits an audible, high pitched whistle when threatened.
Chamaeleo namaquensis is found in the desert of Namibia. To cool off it will sometimes bury itself in the sand.
Chameleons do have taste buds on their tongue but overall they have a poor sense of taste.
The word Rhampholeon is taken from the Latinized Greek “rhamphos leon” meaning crawling lion.
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 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 chameleon tongue accelerates towards its target at over 1642m per second. Chameleons rarely miss their intended food item.
The word Brookesia is named after the British naturalist Joshua Brookes.