Getting To Know About Chameleon And Reavealing The Misery Behind Change in Skin Color

The unknown fact about chameleon

Before making thorough research about this little creature called chameleon, I have always known this colorful lizard as been able to adapt to its environment in term of changing color exactly the way it environment is, but I was wrong. I know there are lot of people like me who have might have been getting the expression wrong also that to be chameleon like means someone who is capable of adapting, and easily blend easily with it environment. By the time you might have finish reading this article you will have been able to find out things you have actually been getting all wrong about chameleon and other things you never knew about chameleon.
To start with there are of different species which are been distinguished based on their zygodactylous feet, tongues, swaying gait and their brow and snout^[1].

The chameleon is capable of rotating his two eyes independently in a 360 direction that is it can rotate the eye by the left alone in a 360 direction without any influence on the right is this not amazing from this creature. Most chameleon are currently known as not be poisonous but they can bite as a means of defense anytime they are frightened^[2]. As there are some species of chameleon that are aggressive in nature, of which they show by hissing any time they feel uncomfortable. As most there ways to calm a chameleon any time they are hissing as a result of stress and their environment temperature. Unlike other lizard chameleon feet look much quiet different, as the five toes on a chameleon are distinguished into two fascicles. The toes in each fascicles are bound into a flattened group of either two or three, which make each foot in a tongue like.

You might be wondering how chameleon manage to climb trees branches with these kind of toes and grouped feet, the misery not yet revealed is that each toes is equipped a very sharp claw of which make it to climb and gripped firmly at any tree, of which make it quiet comfortable.
Though chameleon don't have any ears but can still detect sound frequencies ranging from 200 - 600 Hz^[3]. The question you might want to ask is how do they feed or run away from any predator when they don't have ears ?.
As mentioned before chameleon have a good eye sight which can move in a 360 direction

independently of which make it quiet possible to look at different object at the same time. Therefore they are able to see their prey at 5-10meter distance away from them. As all chameleons are known to feed mostly on insect as their prey of which they capture by projecting their tongue that is known to be usually to be one to two times the length of their bodies( their length excluding the tail)

Believe it or not as colorful as this wonderful creature is you will not like to look at the tongue, which is quiet, disgusting.

Having known about all the body part it is time to unveil the little secret behind the chameleon change in skin color.
Scientist thought that chameleon changed color by spreading out pigments in their in their skin just the way aquatic creature like the octopus and squid do. But that is not all, it is just a process that lead to the change. Michel Milinkovitch an evolutionary geneticst and biophysicist at the Department of Genetics and Evolution at The University of Geneva and a team of researchers make it clear enough that chameleon actually change color using a crystalline structure beneath their top skin layer that is the epidemics layer of their skin. They proceed further by saying that just beneath chameleon skin layer there are cells known as iridophores.

These particular cells contain a microscopic salt crystals that are absorbable when light heat those microscopic salt crystals which lead to creation of the generic color on chameleon skin.

Since chameleon don't have ears there means of communication is through a change in color of their skin. As the male will change color to warn other male of a territory, while the female usually change color as a way of communicating to the male if she is interested in breeding, these actually happen to be their primary reason for changing color. When a chameleon feels relaxed without any form of stressed is when they usually displayed the green color found on their skin.

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Scientist are still making more reseach to explain more on the reason why chameleon have a constant change in the color of their skin of which has been leading to more and more research carried out every day on this creatures.

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Thank you all for reading i hope you have actually learn something new today have a wonderful time on steemit. For further reading below is the references sources use for the compilation of this articles.

References:[1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11]

Image Sources:[1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Gif source: Wikipedia