Hi
,
I'd like to return for a moment to one of my favorite creatures, the chameleon. These guys have amazing capabilities besides the obvious one - their ability to change color. While we're on that topic, how does a chameleon change its color? It's an astonishing design! Scientists have discovered special cells within two superimposed layers of skin. The upper layer contains these cells called chromatophores. These cells
are made up of hundreds of thousands of tiny crystals that can cause each cell to move and change its structure. A chameleon can change its color by changing the size and shape of these cells to reflect different wavelengths of light!
Chameleons have traditionally been thought of as creatures that can hide due to their ability to change color. While this is true, this ability has many different uses. A chameleon can express its mood, or cause sunlight to warm it up faster, or communicate to females - or other males, etc. One way I could tell if I had a male is to show it a mirror. Typically, if it was a female, she wouldn't care. But if I had a
male, it often would turn dark and attack the mirror!
Color change is an astonishing capability of a chameleon. But it has others! We'll see some of those next time...
