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50 free Chameleon trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Chameleons are stranger than the cartoon version. Their colour change is driven by nanocrystals in the skin rather than pigment, they use it mostly to talk to each other and to warm up rather than to hide, their tongues launch at accelerations above 41 g, and their eyes work independently until the moment they lock on to prey. This quiz covers all of that, plus where the roughly 200 species actually live, why half of them are on Madagascar, and how a nano-chameleon 22 millimetres long came to be a contender for the world's smallest reptile. Easy questions ask which continent chameleons come from and what they mostly eat; the harder ones want the Greek roots of the name, the number of days a Parson's chameleon egg takes to hatch, the frequency range chameleons can hear, and which species Hamlet was talking about when he said he ate the air. Pet keepers will recognise the veiled, panther and Jackson's chameleons that fill out the middle of the set. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the chameleon family and its best-known species, and each question carries the sentence that supports it. Our Lizards and Reptiles quizzes go wider if you want more.
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Q 01Roughly how many chameleon species had been described as of 2015?
About 200
That makes chameleons a modest family among the 7,000-plus lizard species, but an unusually distinctive one.
Q 02About half of all chameleon species are found only on which island?
Madagascar
Despite that, genetic work suggests the family arrived by two separate ocean crossings rather than evolving there.
Q 03Chameleons have been introduced to which two places outside their native range?
Hawaii and Florida
Florida alone now has six invasive chameleon species thanks to the pet trade, and hobbyists go out hunting for them to sell.
Q 04The chameleon's grasping tail is often nicknamed what?
A fifth limb
Arboreal species use it as an extra anchor point while climbing; ground-dwelling species like the Namaqua chameleon have much shorter tails.
Q 05The Greek roots of the word 'chameleon' translate literally as what?
Ground lion
The Greek was itself a translation of the Akkadian 'nesh qaqqari', which means the same thing.
Q 06What are the specialised colour cells layered in chameleon skin called?
Chromatophores
The stack runs from red-and-gold pigment cells at the surface, through crystal-filled iridophores, down to dark melanophores at the base.
Q 07Chameleon iridophores produce structural colour using nanocrystals of which substance?
Guanine
The lizard changes the spacing of the crystal lattice, which changes which wavelengths are reflected: tight spacing gives blue, wider spacing shifts to warmer hues.
Q 08A resting chameleon looks green because reflected blue light passes through cells of what colour?
Yellow
When the crystal spacing widens in an excited state, the reflected light can jump to yellow, orange or red.
Q 09Beyond camouflage, colour change in chameleons is most commonly used for what?
Social signalling and temperature
A darker skin absorbs more heat; a lighter one reflects it, so an ectotherm can nudge its body temperature without moving.
Q 10When displaying aggression to a rival, a chameleon tends to show what?
Brighter colours
Submitting or 'giving up' goes the other way, with the loser darkening.
Q 11Bones in the skulls of most chameleon genera fluoresce with what colour under UV light?
Blue
The fluorescence comes from bone under very thin skin and may serve as a signal in shady forest.
Q 12Smith's dwarf chameleon adjusts its camouflage depending on what?
Which predator is threatening it
It shows different colours to a bird than to a snake, tuned to how each predator sees.
Q 13The oldest described chameleon fossil, Anqingosaurus brevicephalus, comes from which country?
China
It dates to the Middle Paleocene, around 59 to 62 million years ago, long before the family reached the island where it is now most diverse.
Q 21A chameleon's tongue can reach its prey in as little as how long?
0.07 seconds
It launches at more than 41 g, powered by elastic recoil rather than muscle alone.
Q 22A chameleon's tongue is typically thought to be how long relative to its body (excluding tail)?
1.5 to 2 times
Smaller chameleons do relatively better, projecting their tongues more than twice their body length.
Q 23Because tongue projection relies on elastic recoil, chameleons can hunt effectively when?
On cold mornings
Other lizards are still sluggish at low body temperatures, so chameleons get first pick of the insects.
Q 14Studies suggest chameleons most likely originated where?
Mainland Africa
Two separate oceanic migrations then carried them across the Mozambique Channel, where they diversified.
Q 15What is the maximum recorded total length of the largest chameleon, the male Furcifer oustaleti?
68.5 cm
At the other extreme, the smallest male nano-chameleon measures 22 millimetres, tail included.
Q 16How many toes does a chameleon have on each foot?
Five
They are bundled into two tong-like groups of two and three, which is why the feet are loosely called zygodactyl.
Q 17A chameleon's upper and lower eyelids are joined, leaving only what for the pupil?
A pinhole
Each eye still pivots and focuses independently, giving a full 360-degree arc of vision.
Q 18Chameleons lack an outer and middle ear, but can still detect sounds in roughly which range?
200 to 600 Hz
That is a narrow band compared with the human 20 to 20,000 Hz; like snakes, they have no ear opening or eardrum at all.
Q 19Chameleons have the highest density of which cells in the retina of any vertebrate, relative to size?
Cones
That gives them the highest magnification for their size of any vertebrate; prey distance is judged with one eye, not two.
Q 20Besides visible light, chameleons can also see in what?
Ultraviolet
UV exposure makes captive chameleons more social and more inclined to bask, feed and breed, via its effect on the pineal gland.
Q 24What is the tubular muscle that powers a chameleon's tongue projection called?
The accelerator
It contracts around a rod of the hyoid bone called the entoglossal process; the hyoglossus is the retractor that pulls the tongue back.
Q 25Which list correctly names European countries where chameleons occur naturally?
Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Malta
Only one living species has a natural range that extends into Europe.
Q 26Which genus of pygmy chameleons lives low in vegetation or on the ground among leaf litter?
Brookesia
It includes the nano-chameleon Brookesia nana, one of the smallest reptiles ever found.
Q 27What is the main cause of declining chameleon numbers?
Habitat loss
Many species have tiny ranges, so clearing a single patch of forest can threaten a whole species.
Q 28The eggs of Parson's chameleon typically take how long to hatch?
400 to 660 days
Most chameleon eggs hatch in four to twelve months; Parson's is exceptionally slow to do everything, including breed.
Q 29Large veiled chameleons have been known to lay clutches of up to how many eggs?
200
The tiniest pygmy species, by contrast, may lay only two to four.
Q 30Jackson's chameleon gives birth to live young; how does the mother deposit each one?
Presses it onto a branch, where it sticks
Each baby arrives inside a sticky transparent yolk-sac membrane, bursts out and climbs off to hunt; a female can produce up to 30 at once.