Chameleons or chamaeleons are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 200 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colours, being capable of colour-shifting camouflage. The large number of species in the family exhibit considerable variability in their capacity to change colour. For some, it is more of a shift of brightness ; for others, a plethora of colour-combinations can be seen.
Chameleon
Mughal era painting of a chameleon by Ustad Mansur.
Skeleton of common chameleon
Nearly all species of chameleon have prehensile tails, but they most often grip with the tail when they cannot use all four feet at once, such as when passing from one twig to another.
Lizard is the common name used for all squamate reptiles other than snakes, encompassing over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The grouping is paraphyletic as some lizards are more closely related to snakes than they are to other lizards. Lizards range in size from chameleons and geckos a few centimeters long to the 3-meter-long Komodo dragon.
Lizard
A young Mediterranean house gecko in the process of moulting.
Red tegu (Tupinambis rufescens) skull, showing teeth of differing types
Adhesive pads enable geckos to climb vertically.
