The recognition of chaotic phenomena with hidden oscillations and self-excitations obeys the deterministic laws through which one can portray nonrandom chaos with unpredictable courses of events. Phenomena with hidden oscillations and self-excitation have had an enormous impact on all sciences and on popular culture as well. In exaggeration, actual dynamics are generally more regular than chaotic, which is because chaos sometimes necessitates parameters that are far superior to those we encounter in reality [
1‐
3]. Leonov and Kuznetsov [
4] categorized attractors in terms of new self-excited attractors and hidden attractors. They established a connection between the concept of hidden oscillations with some fundamental noted problems. These attractors were investigated by numerical methods from chaotic systems via modern computing software. Abro and Atangana [
5] presented the different attractors of a drilling system based on an induction motor by means of newly presented fractal–fractional operators. Numerical simulations for the obtained solution were based on fractional techniques, and the results were discussed separately for fractional, fractal and fractal–fractional differential and integral operators. Leonov et al. [
6] studied the convective flow of rotating fluid that is described by a system similar to the Lorenz-chaotic system, in which they emphasized that this system has a self-excited attractor with a homoclinic trajectory. They also found that if the physical model is purely Lorenz system then a hidden attractor can be localized. Akgul and Pehlivan [
7] introduced a new chaotic system with no equilibrium point and dynamically analyzed the system by means of equilibrium points. They observed that this new system possessed fractal dimensions, chaotic behavior and sensitivity to initial conditions. Recent works on chaotic systems with no equilibrium points [
8‐
11] and with equilibrium points can be found in [
12‐
15].
In order to present the complex dynamical model, the following paragraphs explore the chaotic attractors via classical differentiation, fractional differentiation, fractal differentiation and fractal–fractional differentiation. Abro [
16] presented an aerodynamic analysis of a wind turbine based on four different mathematical models depending on classical differentiation, fractional differentiation, fractal differentiation and fractal–fractional differentiation. The chaotic attractors and oscillations were obtained numerically and compared with different operators. Wang et al. [
17] proposed a new three-dimensional chaotic system having no equilibrium point and hidden attractor with coexisting limit cycle. Dynamic analysis for the proposed no-equilibrium chaotic system has been observed in detail. The authors proposed application based on practical signal encryption and illustrated it numerically. Abro and Atangana [
18] investigated a chaotic system with perpendicular line equilibrium, line equilibrium and without equilibrium by means of a fractal differential operator having a non-singular kernel. The simulations for dynamical systems have been depicted for periodicity and quasi-periodicity for chaos and hyperchaos. Yuan et al. [
19] studied the chaotic oscillation of a model designed by meminductor and memcapacitor. They analyzed the five-dimensional chaotic oscillator for the considered model and reduced its chaotic complexity by reducing its dimensions to a three-dimensional system. Abro and Atangana [
20] presented a fractal–fractionalized mathematical model for an electromechanical system consisting of motor and roller by three different techniques based on non-singularity and non-locality. Stability and effectiveness analysis were also carried out for all three models and compared. For the sake of simplicity in this manuscript, we focus on recent investigations related to chaotic attractors for transient anomalous diffusion [
21], heat flow equation [
22], longitudinal fin [
23], piecewise differentials [
24], fractional-order systems [
25], resistance and conductance during magnetization [
26], hyperchaos with synchronization [
27], Shinriki’s oscillator model [
28], free convective flow in a circular pipe [
29], the Vallis model [
30], nanofluid [
31], a Chua attractor [
32], non-Fourier heat conduction [
33], and a two-wing smooth chaotic system [
34].
Motivated by the above discussions, the fractal–fractionalized [
35‐
40] chaotic chameleon system is developed to demonstrate random chaos and strange attractors. The mathematical modeling of the chaotic chameleon system is established through the Caputo–Fabrizio fractal–fractional differential operator versus the Atangana–Baleanu fractal–fractional differential operator. The fractal–fractional differential operators have suggested random chaos and strange attractors with hidden oscillations and self-excitation. The limiting cases of fractal–fractional differential operators have been invoked on the chaotic chameleon system, namely (i) variation of fractal domain by fixing fractional domain, (ii) variation of fractional domain by fixing fractal domain, and (iii) variation of the fractal domain as well as the fractional domain. Finally, the comparative analysis of the chaotic chameleon system based on singularity versus non-singularity and locality versus non-locality is depicted in terms of chaotic illustrations.