Chameleon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the constellation see Chamaeleon
s are small to mid-size reptiles , and one of the best known lizard families. They are famous for their ability to change their colour but also because of their elongated tongue and their eyes which can be moved independently of each other. The name Chameleon means "earth lion" and is derived from the Greek words chamai (on the ground, on the earth) an leon (lion).
This is a rather old lizard family since fossil records are known from as early as the early Tertiary
The main distribution of Chameleons is Africa and Madagascar , although some species are also found in parts of southern Europe India and Asia Minor . Different members of this family inhabit all kinds of biotopes like tropical and montane rain forests, savannahs and sometimes semideserts and steppes. Chameleons are mostly arboreal and are often found on smaller bushes and shrubs rather than on taller trees. Some species, however, live on the ground under foliage.
Chameleons are not active hunters but rather sit motionless for hours and wait for a prey to pass by. They mainly feed on different arthropods and small vertebrates . Chameleons live mostly solitary.
Some Chameleon species are able to change their body colour, which made them one of the most famous lizard families. Contrary to popular belief, this change of colour is not an adaptation to the surroundings but rather an expression of the physical and physiological condition of the lizard. The skin colour is changed under influence of mood, light and temperature. The skin colour also plays an important part in communication and rivalry fights.
Chameleons have specialized cells that lie in two layers under the chameleon's transparent outer skin. These cells, which are called chromatophores, contain yellow and red pigments. Below these chromatophores are cell layers that have white and blue pigments. A layer of brown melanin is situated even deeper under these blue and white light reflecting cells. All these different pigment cells can change their size (expand or contract), thereby influencing the colour of light which is reflected.
Family Chamaeleonidae
Subfamily Chamaeleoninae (typical chameleons) Genus Bradypodion Genus Calumma Genus Chamaeleo Genus Furcifer
(typical chameleons) Subfamily Brookesiinae (dwarf chameleons) Genus Brookesia Genus Rhampholeon
(dwarf chameleons)
Chameleon is also the name of a computer workstation design produced at ETH Zurich running the Oberon operating system.
Scientists from the United States and Germany have discovered a new species of snake capable of changing it's colours, in the Betung Kerihun National Park on the island of Borneo.

Researchers Mark Auliya from the ''Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig'' in Bonn and a consultant for the ''World Wildlife Federation''(WWF), and John Murphy and Harold Voris from the ''Field Museum of Natural History'' in Chicago were collecting specimens from the wetlands of the Kapuas river when they stumbled upon the snake's colour changing ability.

"I put the reddish-brown snake in a dark bucket," Auliya explained. "When I retrieved it a few minutes later, it was almost entirely white."

The ability to change colour is known from some reptiles, famously the chameleon, but scientists have seen it very rarely with snakes and are yet to understand the phenomenon. In chameleons, colour change is an expression of it's physiological condition. Skin color is also influenced by light and temperature.

The two snakes, initially brown with an iridescent sheen, are about a half metre long and venomous. The scientists named them the 'Kapus-Mud-Snake'. 

They are believed to belong to the ''Enhydris'' genus, which is composed of 22 species of rear-fanged water snakes, only two of which are widespread. The scientists believe this newly discovered snake might only occur in the Kapuas river drainage system.

"The discovery of the "chameleon" snake exposes one of nature's best kept secrets deep in the Heart of Borneo." Said Stuart Chapman, WWF's international coordinator of the Heart of Borneo Programme. "Its ability to change colour has kept it hidden from science until now." 

In the last ten years 361 new animal and plants species have been discovered on the island of Borneo, however, WWF says wildlife in the region is threatened by deforestation. Today, only half of Borneo's forest cover remains, down from 75 per cent in the mid 1980s.

There is hope, however, that this trend can be halted. Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia - the three governments which hold jurisdiction over Borneo - recently launched the Heart of Borneo initiative. This aims to preserve approximately 220,000km2 of equatorial forests and numerous wildlife species.