The horns on a chameleon are made up of ringlike segments of inner bone covered by a hard keratin-like skin.
True chameleons include the following genera: Archaius, Bradypodion, Brookesia, Calumma, Chamaeleo, Furcifer, Kinyongia, Nadzikambia, Palleon, Rhampholeon, Rieppeleon and Trioceros.
The word Bradypodion comes from the latin “bradus podos” or slow foot.
Chameleons have a very poor sense of smell.
The largest chameleon species by weight is Calumma parsonii (Parson’s Chameleon).
The word Furcifer is derived from the Latin word “furci” or forked.
The word Kinyongia is from the Swahili word for chameleons: Kinyonga.
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 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.
Chameleons change color by rearranging a lattice of nanocrystals in one of their top layers of skin cells called iridophores. Chameleons can then stretch this layer, broadening the nanocrystalline lattice, thereby causing it to reflect a different wavelength of light.