Animals / Reptiles / Types of Lizards / Chameleons
Chameleons
Chameleons have to be the most visual stunning lizards. Some species have it all - horns, pinchers, the ability to change colors, eyes that can look in different directions, a tongue twice the length of its body and a curly tail.
Chameleon looking up there and over there
Chameleons are specialized tree-living lizards. Their bodies are flattened from side to side, and more or less leaf-shaped. They remain still and concealed for long periods of time and wait for their prey to come near. When they move, they do so slowly, and rock their bodies from side to side like a leaf in the wind, fooling predators and prey. Their tails and pinchers are well adapted for climbing and balance. The prehensile tail can be used to grab large and small twigs and branches. The tail is also quite heavy and is used to give them great balance. It then handily folds up into a nice tight spiral for easy portability.
Jackson's Chameleon
Chameleons are generally solitary and territorial animals, coming together only for breeding.
Panther Chameleon - Nice colors and pincher feet.
Chameleons may change their colors for camouflage but their color may also reflect their emotion.
Pygmy Chameleon Mozambique
Pygmy Chameleon in Mozambique prentending to be a stick.
Veiled Chameleon - Nice colors and curly tail
The Veiled Chameleon is known to be aggressive. Males are more brightly colored and larger.
This hunter demonstrates hunting with a tongue much longer than its body
This tongue is really an impressive hunting tool. It not only shoots out at blinding speed but it is sticky and has a suction cup at the end of it.
Turkey near Izmir - Source: Volkan Yuksel
Wikipedia excerpt for "Chameleon":
Chameleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of lizards. They are distinguished by their parrot-like zygodactylous feet, their separately mobile and stereoscopic eyes, their very long, highly modified, and rapidly extrudable tongues, their swaying gait, and the possession by many of a prehensile tail, crests or horns on their distinctively shaped heads, and the synonymous ability to change color. Uniquely adapted for climbing and visual hunting, the approximately 160 species of chameleon range from Africa, Madagascar, and Spain, across south Asia, to Sri Lanka, have been introduced to Hawaii and California, and are found in warm habitats that vary from rain forest to desert conditions.
The English word chameleon (also chamaeleon) derives from the Latin chamaeleo which is borrowed from the Ancient Greek χαμαιλέων (khamaileon), a compound of χαμαί (khamai) "on the earth, on the ground" + λέων (leon) "lion". The Greek word is a calque translating the Akkadian nēš qaqqari, "ground lion".
See full Wikipedia Chameleon article
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