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The chameleon is part of the chamaeleonidae family and they are a very distinct race of lizards. They look apart by their feet that look like the ones of a parrot, for their eyes that are mobile, separate and stereoscopic, their long and rapid tongue, their tail or their horns on their distinct head and most of all the chameleon is known by its ability to change color and


There are almost 150 species that will range from Madagascar, Africa, Portugal and Spain and go all across Sri Lanka or California and Hawaii and you will surely find them in conditions of desert or very warm habitats and even rain forests.

The word is a derived from Latin 'chameleon' which means 'on the ground, on earth'. Chameleons may vary in body structure and size and you may find them at a length of 3.4 cm the Brookesia minima , that is the smallest reptile in the world, to a huge 69.5 cm that a male Furcifer oustaleti will have.

Many of the chameleons have ornamentation on the face or protrusions on the nose or in the case of the Chamaeleo jacksonii projections of horns or for the Chamealeo calyptratus that you will recognize by the crests that will be on the top of their head. Most of the species of the chameleon are dimorphic sexually and a male chameleon is usually more ornamented then a female one.


The foot structure, the tongues and the eyes are features that all chameleon species have in common and in rest you can find many different chameleons around the world. One feature is that they all are didactyl this means that the fives toes from each foot are in a group of there and two and this will make the foot look like a tong.

Their feet allow them to hold on tight to the branches of the trees and slowly but firmly to get where they want to go. To gain traction, each toe will be equipped with a very sharp claw just to gain traction on the surface like a bark when it will climb. These claws will make it easier to see the foot and how many toes there are: three toes inside and two toes on the outside of each of the front foots.

Among all the reptiles, their eyes are the most distinctive feature because the lower and the upper eyelids will be joined and a pinhole for the pupil. The eyes can focus and rotate to observe simultaneously two objects at the same time and they have a 360 degrees vision of arc around their body. When they see their pray, they can focus with both eyes upon it and in the same direction and they will have depth perception and stereoscopic vision.

They have very good eyesight for most of the reptiles and they will see insects that are very small from a distance of 10-15 cm. The have no vomeronasal organ and they resemble snakes because they do not have any middle or outer ear. The fact that chameleons are def was suggested but do keep in mind the fact that most of snakes can 'hear' thought a bone called quadrateim and the vibrations that it will receive.

So many chameleons can communicate with other thought vibrations of the branches or other means that were not fully discovered yet. Most of the chameleons have long tongues and some of them have such long tongues when compared with the length of their body the tongue will be much longer then the body and it has the feature of rapidly getting out and in the mouth. It can extend out side faster then the human eye can catch and researchers stated that it can do that ate 25 lengths per second and will hit the pray faster then you can catch on camera, 20 thousandths from a second. It is a very complex bone arrangement also of the sinew and the muscle.


At the tongue's base you will find a bone and this will help the chameleon to reach his pray in a flash of a moment and then comes the muscle that will be covered with thick mucus which is very sticky and once the pray will stick to it the tongue will come back to the mouth and all this action can take place in 3-4 ms. The jaws that are quite string will crush it and then it will be consumed. The smallest chameleon is still capable to eat a mantis or a locust. Part of the spectrum of the chameleons is the ultraviolet light and every chameleon that will be exposed to ultraviolet light will show increased activity and social behavior and are more inclined to reproduce and feed.

They will be found in Madagascar and Africa and other tropical regions although there are many species that are found in Sri Lanka or India. They will be found in tropical forests, savannas and steppes. If you can spot one you will surely find it in a tree or a bush and other smaller species will be found on the ground. Most of the chameleons are oviparous and some are ovoviviparous. The first ones will lay eggs after a period of gestation of 3 up to 7 weeks. The female will dig a hole and will deposit her eggs in there, she will burry them there and will leave the nesting site.

It will depend on the size of the specie of the chameleon on clutch size because for example the Brookesia will deposit 2 up to 6 eggs and the Veiled Chameleons will lay 80 -110 eggs. The eggs will hatch in general after 4 up to 12 months, but this again it depends on the species. One of the rarest species of chameleons, the Parson Chameleon, is know for the time that will take it to hatch the eggs, exactly 24 months.

The ovoviviparous like the Jackson's Chameleon, will have a period of gestation of 6 months. The new born will be sleeping when he will hatch and when it will touch the ground; he will try to crawl out of its membrane. Any chameleon mom can have up to 31 kids at a hatch.

A chameleon will eat mantis, locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, or any other insect that they could get their tongue on and it has been known that the larger species will eat other lizards or even small birds. They will prefer running water unlike other reptile species that would like still water. Chameleons need a lot of minerals and vitamins and just to have the strictly necessary daily features the zoo keepers will feed the insects before feeding them to the chameleons, by having them on a fully diet made out of fish, potatoes, dark leafy greens, dry puppy food.

But all in all the ability that everybody knows about the chameleons is the fact that they can change their skin color. There are many species of chameleons that can change their color to turquoise, yellow, brown, black, green, orange, red, blue or pink. As a very effective form of camouflage some varieties of chameleons like the Smith's dwarf chameleon will use this ability just to blend in with all their surroundings.

This color change has been suggested by the psychologist that is the psychical state that the lizard is in right now and will be as a social indicator to other chameleons and then had become a concern as they could camouflage themselves. The have cells that are specialized that are called chromatophores and they are found in the layers under their transparent skin. The cells contain pigments of yellow and red.


When a person will be called or be described as a chameleon it can be interpretive in many ways because It can mean the fact that that person can blend into various situations or the fact that that person's emotions are seen right through him or he. It is quite often used for persons that have no values or that he does not care about the company that he or she is in. A very good actor can be considered as a chameleon. Do remember that these animals are wonderful and if you ever encounter one of them you should not harm them in any way because most of them are already endangered. They are part of our planet and if you are interested in finding out more information on them you should go to your local pet shop because they might have books or other information's about them, or even could get them as a pet.