Editing Veiled chameleon (section)

==Research==
Because chameleons possess anatomy that is functionalized for an arboreal habitat (such as split hands and feet for grasping, a prehensile tail, a projectile tongue, independently moving turreted eyes, and laterally compressed bodies), the veiled chameleon is becoming an up-and-coming model for the study of functional morphology and evolutionary developmental biology (ev-devo). A 2019 study assembled an annotated, multi-tissue transcriptome for the veiled chameleon to use as a resource in evolutionary and developmental research.

The veiled chameleon is currently used as an experimental model to study the evolutionary transition from reptilian amniotes to mammalian and avian species.<ref name="Diaz-et-al-2017">{{cite book | last1=Diaz | first1=Raul E. | last2=Bertocchini | first2=Federica | last3=Trainor | first3=Paul A. | title=Avian and Reptilian Developmental Biology | chapter=Lifting the Veil on Reptile Embryology: The Veiled Chameleon (''Chamaeleo calyptratus'') as a Model System to Study Reptilian Development | series=Methods in Molecular Biology | publisher=[[Springer New York]] | publication-place=[[New York, NY]] | year=2017 | volume=1650 | issn=1064-3745 | doi=10.1007/978-1-4939-7216-6_18 | pages=269–284| pmid=28809028 | isbn=978-1-4939-7215-9 }}</ref>

Squamate reptiles comprise about a third of all living amniotes (animals who lay terrestrial eggs). Most of these species are in late development stages at the time of oviposition. However, veiled chameleons are the exception. They breed readily, do not require a cooling period to induce a reproductive cycle, and females produce about 45–90 eggs multiple times a year. Thus, few animals are required to form a productive breeding colony. This makes them an excellent model organism to study developmental and evolutionary phenomena.

Young chameleons have a heterodont dentition with multi-cuspid teeth in the caudal jaw area and simple mono-cuspid teeth rostrally. Chameleon teeth are also acrodont ankylosed to the bones of the jaw. Odontoblasts produce a layer of predentin that connects the dentine to the supporting bone with both tooth and bone protruding out of the oral cavity and acting as a functional unit. This makes chameleons useful in providing information to study the molecular interaction at the tooth-bone interface in physiological and pathological conditions.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Buchtová |first1=Marcela |last2=Zahradníček |first2=Oldřich |last3=Balková |first3=Simona |last4=Tucker |first4=Abigail S. |title=Odontogenesis in the Veiled Chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus) |journal=Archives of Oral Biology |date=1 February 2013 |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=118–133 |doi=10.1016/j.archoralbio.2012.10.019 |pmid=23200300 }}</ref>