Seems people are having trouble telling speed from acceleration.
8,500 feet per second squared acceleration does not equal 8,500 feet per second speed.
If the chameleon could somehow keep accelerating its tongue for an entire second at the same rate, it would reach 8,500 feet per second in speed. Luckily for physics (and the chameleon), it can only manage to sustain that acceleration rate for a few milliseconds, and so its tongue does not hit hypersonic velocities. The power it would take to sustain the acceleration for a whole second would probably require the chameleon to be nuclear powered 
Funnily enough, the salamander has this record beaten by some margin, hitting 458g acceleration. Go the amphibians.
So, in conclusion, small chameleons can shoot their tongues out faster than big ones, but neither can beat the salamander. None of the three have hypersonic tongues.
Rehashing and rewording stories the person sharing doesn't understand. "Journalism" today.
