A Summary Of The Veiled Chameleon

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Physiological Mechanisms of The Veiled
Chameleon and The Bluegill Fish
Animal Physiology (BIOL 310­01)
Dr. Gregg Ward
March 17, 2016
Collaborators:
Brittney M. Johnson: The Veiled Chameleon
Marcia Taylor: Bluegill Fish
Organism: The Veiled Chameleon (Reptile) Organism: Bluegill (Fish)
Kingdom: Animalia Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Squamata Order: Perciformes
Family: Chamaeleonidae Family: Centrarchidae
Genus: Chamaeleo Genus: Lepomis
Species: C. calyptratus Species: L. macrochirus
Feeding
Feeding occurs in the Veiled Chameleon using a tongue shooting mechanism. Structured on the hyoid bone, the tongue is made up of a group of differing types of muscles. Specifically, in feeding …show more content…

The movement of the tongue is swift and as quickly as the projectile of the tongue exits the mouth to obtain the prey, it swiftly returns back to the mouth of the reptile. The chameleon utilises its jaw to consume larger organisms like vertebrates, snails, eggs, and plant materials (Berre & Bartlett, 2009).
Similarly, as arboreals, Veiled chameleons mainly reside in trees. The body design of these chameleons appear to laterally flattened, whereas it is flattened from side to side, and illustrate “more or less [of a leaf shape]” (Veiled Chameleon, n.d.), and the movement of the organism is slow and calculating and in the presence of a prey, the chameleon rocks from side to side, sort of “like a leaf in the wind” (Veiled Chameleon,
n.d.), as the chameleon awaits the arrival of the prey or for the prey to be in close proximity. In conjunction with this, the chameleon’s color camouflages well with the surrounding habitat, such as a tree or a leaf and the reptile is able to maintain a broad spectrum vision, whereas its eyes are movable and capable of 360 angled …show more content…

Thereafter, using gastric juices, partial digestion is able to occur in the stomach, and subsequently, the food is passed along to the intestine for more digestion and absorption into the blood and the metabolic waste is excreted via the anus. Similarly, a valve called the pyloric valve, located between the stomach and the intestine aids the pushing and stopping of food transmission and a duct that extends from the liver and pancreas enter the intestine to secrete digestive enzymes including "pepsin and trypsin" into the food. Pepsin and trypsin are not only secreted into the intestine at this place, but are also formed and secreted into the stomach and intestine all along the stomach and intestine from sub­mucosal cells. Also, the inside of the intestine has many blood vessels and fold linings that aid in absorption of varied foods, as well as increase the surface area.
Osmoregulation
Osmoregulation denotes the process by which the fluid and electrolyte contents of an organism balances with their surroundings (Berre & Bartlett, 2009) and is inclusive of the diversity of the osmoregulatory mechanisms. Considering that chameleons, akin to other organisms, require water and

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