The word Brookesia is named after the British naturalist Joshua Brookes.
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 Bradypodion comes from the latin “bradus podos” or slow foot.
Chameleons have a very poor sense of smell.
The word Kinyongia is from the Swahili word for chameleons: Kinyonga.
The word Calumma comes from the Latin word for covering. This genus consists of chameleons from Madagascar with occipital lobes.
The largest chameleon species by weight is Calumma parsonii (Parson’s Chameleon).
Many chameleon species have a bright red, orange or yellow mouth. This conspicuous interior when displayed is used as a defense against predators.
The horns on a chameleon are made up of ringlike segments of inner bone covered by a hard keratin-like skin.
Chameleons can project their tongue up to 2.2 times their body length.