The chameleon tongue accelerates towards its target at over 1642m per second. Chameleons rarely miss their intended food item.
The word Calumma comes from the Latin word for covering. This genus consists of chameleons from Madagascar with occipital lobes.
Chamaeleo namaquensis is found in the desert of Namibia. To cool off it will sometimes bury itself in the sand.
Chameleons have a very poor sense of smell.
Chameleons can project their tongue up to 2.2 times their body length.
True chameleons include the following genera: Archaius, Bradypodion, Brookesia, Calumma, Chamaeleo, Furcifer, Kinyongia, Nadzikambia, Palleon, Rhampholeon, Rieppeleon and Trioceros.
The word Rieppeleon is named after the scientist Olivier Rieppel.
The word Kinyongia is from the Swahili word for chameleons: Kinyonga.
The horns on a chameleon are made up of ringlike segments of inner bone covered by a hard keratin-like skin.
Some chameleons play dead to avoid predation; this is called thanatosis.