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 Rhampholeon is taken from the Latinized Greek “rhamphos leon” meaning crawling lion.
The word Kinyongia is from the Swahili word for chameleons: Kinyonga.
Pygmy chameleons have bicuspid claws where each claw has two points like a crescent moon.
Chameleons do have taste buds on their tongue but overall they have a poor sense of taste.
Trioceros schubotzi can be found at elevations as high as 4500m.
The word Furcifer is derived from the Latin word “furci” or forked.
The horns on a chameleon are made up of ringlike segments of inner bone covered by a hard keratin-like skin.
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!
Furcifer labordi (Labord’s Chameleon) has the shortest lifespan of only 4-5 months. It also has the shortest lifespan of any tetrapod!