What makes a chameleon camouflage

HowStuffWorks picks related titles based on books we think you'll like. Should you choose to buy one, we'll receive a portion of the sale. There's not a ton of research to support it yet, but some scientists believe chameleons' color-changing abilities also allow them to regulate their body temperature. A study demonstrated that bearded dragons alter their hue based on their temps, and since chameleons are ectotherms and can't retain body heat hence their stereotypical sunbathing , it's possible that maintaining a dark color allows them to absorb more light and heat.

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Animal Facts. Chameleons are well-known for their ability to spontaneously change color. And the more dramatic color transformations—which have made species like the panther chameleon famous—help these lizards defend territory and attract mates. So while they may not live up to their common portrayal in entertainment media, their use of color is far more impressive than most people imagine.

Staying hidden is pretty much their only tactic to evade predators. In their natural state, they already look a lot like leaves or branches, much like stick insects looks like In other words, chameleons can, in fact, change the color of their skin to match the environment, but within a narrow sliver on the color wheel.

The more elaborate displays, such as when multiple, bright colors appear at once, are saved for another purpose entirely. Chameleons have two opposing states, Milinkovitch says.

They either try to be invisible, which subtle color shifts help them achieve, or try to be seen—again by changing their color, but this time much more explosively.

No display stands out against the green forest backdrop like that of male dominance. Research has shown that some male chameleons will use color to impersonate females, which allows them to sneak by other males without the threat of competition, much like cuttlefish have been known to do. Chameleons will also use their displays to dazzle females during courtship.

Stuart-Fox believes that changing color may serve yet another, albeit poorly-researched, function: Helping chameleons regulate their body temperature.

Instead, they have to warm up using the sun. Darker colors absorb more light, and chameleons have likely evolved to capitalize on this principle, she says.

The lizards' skin also contains yellow pigments , and blue mixed with yellow makes green, a "cryptic" color that camouflages them among trees and plants, Milinkovitch said. The "red skin hue does not change dramatically during excitation, but its brightness increases," the researchers wrote in the study. Furthermore, the researchers found a deeper and thicker layer of skin cells that reflect a large amount of near-infrared sunlight.

While these cells do not appear to change color, it's possible that they help the chameleons reflect heat and stay cool, the researchers said. The researchers used a number of methods to study the iridophore cells. They filmed the chameleons' color changes using high-resolution videography and made numerical models that predict how the nanocrystals should reflect light.

The researchers also manipulated the cells by subjecting them to solutions of varying concentrations, which caused the cells to swell or shrink. These modifications changed the distances between the nanocrystals, and altered their visible colors, just as the researchers predicted they would, Milinkovitch said.

However, only adult male chameleons change color, especially when they see a rival male chameleon they want to chase away, or a female to attract, Milinkovitch said. Their skin is covered with several layers of very special cells called chromatophores that respond to chemicals from the nervous system and bloodstream. Inside these cells are tiny sacs containing color and when the signal comes, this color is released and spreads throughout the chromatophores.

They only have four shades to work with -- yellow, red, blue and brown -- but like artists, chameleons mix colors to produce other colors, like red and yellow to produce orange. Some coleoid cephalopods, a group of marine animals that include octopuses, squid and cuttlefish, are capable of camouflaging themselves so well, even against backgrounds with extremely complex patterns, that they are rendered virtually invisible.

Even more surprising: these animals are known to be color blind. Military Academy in West Point used state-of-the-art imaging technology to try to unravel the mystery of how they do it and found that the camouflage strategies of these animals to avoid detection by predators was based not on color, like the chameleon's, but on the manipulation of light.

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