WELCOME Animal Enthusiast...behold...THE CHAMELEON WEBPAGE!
THIS PAGE INCLUDES INFORMATION ABOUT:
about the reptile (Scientific Name Chamaeleonidae) habitat, evolution, appearance, and traits.This type of lizard includes over 160 species which live across the Madagascar, Spain, Africa Portugal, and the United States.
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Discover where this beautiful reptile lives:
visit the Habitat webpage.
CHAMELEON EVOLUTION:
* The oldest chameleon species known to biologists is the Anqingosaurus Brevicephalus from the Middle Paleocene era (about 58.7 to 61.7 million years ago) of China.
* Chameleons are believed to share a common ancestor with iguanids and agamids that existed more than 100 million years ago.
* Fossils of the chameleon have been found in Africa, Europe, and Asia, however, more recent evidence suggests that chameleons most likely originated in mainland Africa.
DISCLAIMER:
If you are considering owning a Chameleon as a pet careful consideration and research should be done before deciding to own a chameleon. These are among the most sensitive reptiles one can own, requiring constant specialized attention and care from their human.
A Chameleon owner demonstrates the ability of this reptile to change colors:
By assisting his pet to climb onto different colored pairs of sunglasses,
the animal changes colors rapidly
Chameleons are ectothermic. This means an animal that relies on its external environment to regulate its body temperature. These reptiles shift to either a darker colour to absorb light and heat to raise their temperature, or to a lighter colour to reflect light and heat, thereby either stabilizing or lowering their body temperature. Chameleons tend to show brighter colours when displaying aggression to other chameleons,and darker colours when they submit or "give up".
CHAMELEON COLOR CHANGE:
- Chameleons are best known for their distinct range of colors,and being capable of color shifting camoflage
- Different species of Chameleons are able to vary their coloration and pattern through combinations of pink, blue, red, orange, green, black, brown, light blue, yellow, turquoise, and purple
- Color change in chameleons primarily functions as a means of camouflage
- In addition to camoflage, color change is more commonly used by the chameleon in social signaling to other animals, in reactions to temperature,and other conditions.
- A Chameleons color change signals the reptiles physiological condition and intention to other chameleons.
CHAMELEON PHYSICAL TRAITS:
*Chameleons vary greatly in size and body structure, with maximum total lengths varying from 22 mm (0.87 in) in male Brookesia nana (one of the world's smallest reptiles) to 68.5 cm (27.0 in) in the male Furcifer oustaleti.
*Many types have head or facial ornamentation, such as nasal protrusions, horn-like projections, or even large crests on top of their heads.
*Chameleons have the most distinctive eyes of any reptile.The upper and lower eyelids are joined, with only a pinhole large enough for the pupil to see through.
*Each eye can pivot and focus independently, allowing the chameleon to observe two different objects simultaneously.
*This gives them a full 360-degree arc of vision around their bodies.Chameleons can see in both visible and ultraviolet light. Like snakes, chameleons do not have an outer or a middle ear, so there is neither an ear-opening nor an eardrum
*Chameleons are not deaf: they can detect sound frequencies in the range of 200–600 Hz.
CHAMELEON NUTRITION:
- In the wild, chameleons eat flying insects, caterpillars, and larval worms.
- The tongue apparatus consists of highly modified hyoid bones, tongue muscles, and collagenous elements.
- Tongue projection occurs at extremely high performance, reaching the prey in as little as 0.07 seconds,[48][49][51] having been launched at accelerations exceeding 41 g's.
- While other ectothermic animals become sluggish as their body temperatures decline, due to a reduction in the contractile velocity of their muscles, chameleons are able to project their tongues at high performance even at low body temperatures.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
about the Chameleon can be found here...
visit Wikipedia
EMAIL:
any questions,concerns,comments, or ideas about this page- Click to send the creator of this page feedback
IMAGE GALLERY:
IMAGE SOURCES:
TOP OF PAGE (from left to right):
Tiny Chameleon on Human Fingertip:Juvenile Brookesia micra on finger tip: Frank Glaw, Jörn Köhler, Ted M. Townsend, Miguel Vences, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
Colorless Chameleon:ThirdLittleFive by Wolfram Eberius on Flickr is liscensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
Chameleon grasping branch: Chameleon in the tree by Tambako The Jaguar on Flickr is liscensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
Chameleon on Hand: Panther Chameleon by Under the same moon on Flickr is liscensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
MIDDLE OF PAGE (from left to right):
Chameleon climbing down the branch Chameleon_Wroclaw_ZOO by Kinemator, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Green Chameleon Chameleon_head by Mbrickn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Red ChameleonUntitled by Rod Bauer on Flikr is liscensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
BOTTOM OF PAGE (from left to right):
Dark Orange & Brown Chameleon- Panther Chameleon (Réserve Peyrieras) by Johan Siegers on Flikr is liscensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
Chameleon with Patches- chamaeleon, Mediterranean chameleon by Amante Darmanin on Flikr is liscensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
Camoflage Chameleon in the tree- Chamelicious Chameleons by unnamed artist on Facebook group named Portland OR. No liscense information available.
Multicolored Green Chameleon- Chameleon by Chester Zoo on Flickr is liscensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
Chameleon Climbing down the tree- Panther Chameleon by Under the same moon... on is liscensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
Electric Blue Chameleon- photo by iStock is liscensed under CC BY-ND 2.0 on UC Berkeley Engineering