The first thing most people learn about chameleons is wrong. They don’t mainly change color to blend in. They change color to communicate - bright when they’re excited or angry, dull when they’re calm. They also change with temperature, turning darker to soak up sun and paler to cool down.
Their eyes are wilder still. Each one can swivel completely independently of the other, so a chameleon can watch a bee on its left and a snake on its right at the same time. Then, when it spots prey, the eyes lock forward together for a moment of pinpoint depth perception.
That’s when the tongue fires. A chameleon’s tongue is longer than its body and tipped with a sticky bulb. It launches out so fast it accelerates the equivalent of going from 0 to 60 mph in one hundredth of a second - faster than any sports car, and unable to be dodged.
