Coolest Chameleon
The chameleon is a distinctive and highly specialized lizard. It can be easily distinguished by the parrot- like zygodactylous feet, their stereoscopic eyes and their highly modified tongues. Also, it is highly known as the animals who have the ability to change color. Becoming adaptive for climbing and having special vision for hunting purposes, the approximately 160 species of chameleons live scattered from Africa to Madagascar up to Europe in Spain and Portugal. They can also be seen in South Asia, in Sri Lanka and due to their massive popularity, people have brought them even to Hawaii, California and Florida. One can find them actually in almost all tropical, or warm habitats starting with rain forest, but who can also adapt to desert environment.
They have a history that dates millions of years back, becoming similar of age with some iguanids and agamids, with whom they share the same big family of reptiles. Their birthplace is commonly associated with Madagascar island, which also gives origins to almost half of the entire species of reptiles known and unknown. Also, their are reptiles that vary a lot in size, from only 3cm up to 68.5 (the biggest known). But what all species have in common are the foot structure, lack of ears or their look-alike tongues.
But what makes these reptiles so cool and made them gain popularity points across the Globe, is their unique capacity of changing their skin color. Some chameleon species vary a lot in color, from pink and red, up to shades of blue, orange, green, black. brown, yellow or even turquoise. And what most specialists consider as a primary form of camouflage, their skin changing color comes actually more from their pshychological condition, working as a social indicator. Due to this aspect, the camouflage condition only developed as a second base in the chameleon's change of color capacity.
Also, as a curiosity of this particular species, is that when they are born, the baby chameleons are covered with a transparent membrane while they are still sleeping, but immediately they touch the ground or the branch, they wake up and their first instinct is to crawl out of the membrane, just like a newborn child.
As many other reptile species, people find them cute and attractive and associate them with lovely pets. But if you intent to go out to the first pet shop and ask for the chameleon, you should know that they need a complex environment to settle, as close to their original habituate as possible, and that they are also easily stressed. Some of the coolest chameleon species who can live in captivity and are found as pets, include the Veiled Chameleon, the Lion Chameleon or the Panther one.
And while we think we have already discovered all animals, let me remind you that a new species of chameleon was recently found in Tanzania, East Africa
