Biography about the chameleon

An experienced traveler Anastasia Merzlikina 4, somewhere in Africa, you can stand in front of a tree in his lecture, you can stand in front of a tree for a long time, carefully examine the barrel, crown, leaves and only after a few minutes to find that a living creature is sitting on a branch right in front of your eyes. It is impossible to imagine how the surface pattern on which he sits is precisely manifested on the skin of a chameleon.

The chameleon is so unusual that it seems an alien from other worlds. This miracle can be found during a campaign in Tanzania. A relative of the lizard chameleon is a lizard that can change the color of the body. The Chameleon family belongs to the scaly detachment, the reptile class. Depending on the species, the body length can range from three to 60 centimeters, but most often does not exceed 30 centimeters.

The head looks in the way that she was wearing a helmet. Typically, ridges, tubercles and even horns flaunt on it. The chameleon looks like an alien devil. The impression is strengthened by huge eyes - this is how aliens are portrayed in fantastic films. The legs of the chameleon are thin and long. Sometimes it seems that they cannot withstand even its weight and break.

However, the legs allow the animal deftly climbing trees. The fingers on the paws resemble the claws, which allows you to hold tenaciously by the branch. The tail is long. The chameleon can twist it with a spiral, which looks very unusual. Such a spiral is twisted around the branch, providing additional support. A long tail is characteristic of most species. Unlike lizards, which easily grow a new tail in return for the lost, chameleons do not possess this ability, so they protect it as an apple of an eye.

The eyes of reptiles are even more amazing. They are issued far to the sides, providing a review in degrees! The eyelids are so large that they have grown together, leaving a hole for the pupil. The chameleon is able to look with his eyes in different directions - when the left looks straight, the right can see what is happening behind him. This ability is very useful when hunting insects.

When the chameleon sits in ambush, his body is completely motionless, but his eyes are constantly rotated, like radars. But at night, the chameleon sees very badly, so he prefers to rest. Hameleons also have hearing problems, since animals have no ears. They have no idea what ear shells and drum membranes are! How do they get out of the situation? Just as snakes do. They catch vibrations in the range from to Herz.

For comparison, the human ear is capable of perceiving sound frequencies from 16 Herz to 20 Killerz. By human standards, chameleons are almost deaf. Since the range of the human voice lies in the range of up to 4 thousand Herz, if you talk with high -colors reptiles, they simply will not hear you. The color depends on the mood, but the most amazing property of the chameleon is not convex eyes, but the ability to change color.

Imagine that you put your palm on the brick wall, and an image of bricks immediately appeared on the back of the palm - this will seem a real miracle! The chameleon has such magic with chromatopher - skin cells that contain pigments of various colors. When the processes of cells are reduced, the redistribution of pigments occurs, which is accompanied by a change in the color of the skin.

But that's not all! The skin layer of reptile contains the substance of Guanine, which is responsible for the appearance of thinner shades. They appear with refraction of light rays in the skin. Due to this, the skin color can be white, light orange, dark yellow, olive-green, brown-brown, black ... Moreover, the color of the whole body can change, and maybe only a small area. So a complex pattern forms on the skin.

The reason for a change in coloring can be anything - fear, temperature change, hunger, reduction of illumination, etc. Not all types of chameleons have a rich color palette, some can be disguised, slightly changing color, but there are real virtuosos that can literally merge with the surrounding space. The problem is that, falling asleep, reptile loses the ability to mimicry.

To manage color, the chameleon must be awake. Fans of warmth and light chameleon are a thermophilic animal, so it can be found only in the southern latitudes. The greatest population of chameleons lives in mainland Africa and on the island of Madagascar. They are also found in small islands in the western part of the Indian Ocean. If we talk about natural areas, then chameleons prefer the savans and tropical forests, less often - steppes and deserts.

There are those who prefer the coast of the sea or ocean. Typically, reptiles settle on branches of trees or large shrubs. Some species burrow into the ground. Madagascar is found tiny, no more than three centimeters long, chameleons that live in a forest litter. It is extremely difficult to find them. It is no less difficult to see large individuals capable of maximum disguise.Natives of Madagascar Chameleons are very ancient animals, these are real aliens from the past.

They say that the age of the most ancient found reptile exceeds millions of years! Once they were in Europe when the climate was warmer than now. The age of the most ancient European chameleon is 26 million years old. To a greater extent, reptiles were common in Asia. It is believed that all chameleons spread through the planet from Madagascar. This conclusion was reached, since almost half of all the species of these animals known to science lives on the island.

Currently, the Chameleon family has more than two hundred species that are combined in 12 genera. The largest number of species 41 has a genus trioceros, which was born in Africa and has survived on the continent to the present day. Since the genus was described for a long time, even a year, animals at first even gave the name “Real Chameleons”. Later they were allocated in a separate clan.

A feature of the genus is the presence of rather large horns in males. Further, the number of Kalumm, which has 38 species and lives in Madagascar, follow the number. They appeared on the island in time immemorial and have not changed since then. Such animals are called endemics. The length of the chameleons ranges from six to 40 centimeters. The head is very large, the spine is very bent.

In a calm situation, they are painted in olive color, but are able to change it in the widest range. The third place in terms of the number of species is occupied by the genus Brookesia, which lives in Madagascar. These are the smallest chameleons. Among them, the palm of the championship is held by the type of Nana Brokesia, the size of which does not exceed three centimeters!

These chameleons do not change color, but they can hide in the soil. All representatives of the genus Broke's tail are short, slightly twisted into the spiral, and along the ridge there is a number of tubercles and small spikes. Less than the gender of the Madagascar chameleons, which includes 21 species. From other births, they are distinguished by a clear rounded shape of the "helmet" on the head.

They have one horn that is bifurcated on the tip. These chameleons are able to change the color in the large range. The size of the reptiles ranges from 60 to 70 centimeters. In addition to Madagascar, representatives of the genus are found on the nearby islands - Mauritius and Reyunone, as well as in Kenya. This is followed by African dwarf chameleons, which live in the countries of tropical Africa and live, mainly in trees.

The genus includes 19 types. The family of real chameleons follows them. In fact, other reptiles capable of changing coloring are also real, just so the zoologists decided to name the genus. Real chameleons have a very tenacious tail, and some species have pronounced horns. They are found not only in Madagascar, but also in other countries of Africa and even in southern Europe. It is curious that the genus of real chameleons includes an ordinary chameleon.

The smallest is the Rippeleon, which lives in East Africa, the tongue will bring a very mobile language that is used as a weapon to hunting. The reptile throws him forward in one twentieth fraction of a second, and the victim is on the suction cup, which is located on the tip of the tongue. In three seconds, the chameleon is able to catch four insects. It happens that production is too heavy to draw it with a tongue.

Then you have to climb to it and swallow it.