Chameleons are reptiles whose best-known characteristic is their ability to change color. They are one of the most popular examples of animals with camouflage skills. By adopting the color of the environment in which they are found, they manage to go unnoticed and be more difficult for predators to detect. However, these beings do not change color solely as a defense mechanism. They may do this occasionally to help them hide and avoid dangers.
Your changing skin tone is actually a physiological reaction whose purpose is communication. Its color varies depending on your mood. “It uses a chromatic language to express itself about the things that affect it: courtship, competition or environmental stress, among many others,” explains National Geographic about the chameleon.
These animals have the ability to change color thanks to chromatophores, pigment cells that they present in different layers of their skin. They are responsible for giving different shades and regulating brightness, depending on the pigments they contain, the light they reflect with their photoreflective crystals, the environment and body temperature. The outermost layer is that of red and yellow pigments, the middle one has white and blue pigments, while the deepest one stores darker pigments.
Chameleons have several characteristics that differentiate them from other animals. Its eyes can move independently and cover a 360-degree field of vision.
Its legs have five prehensile fingers: three outward and two inward. Their long tail, which they usually have curled in a spiral, unfolds and helps them cling more easily to tree branches.
These reptiles have a protractile and sticky tongue, which they extend at high speed and can stretch to exceed their own body in length. In this way, they catch small insects to feed on.
