Tag: Chameleons

mockwa:

chameleon changes color

Unfortunately, faked. Very well so, though. 

Chameleons don’t change color to hide, like in cartoons. They change color mostly to indicate emotions, intimidate rivals, or impress potential mates. Note that it doesn’t look down at any of the surfaces and therefore can’t have seen them to know what color to be. Also, if it were going to try to hide, it would turn the color of the tabletop. 

They do have some basic ‘hiding’ patterns, but it’s just a pattern that breaks up their outline, they don’t try to color-match. Cuttlefish do that, but not chameleons. You wanna see impressive camo, look at cephalopods. 

rudescience:

How “Chameleons” change color

Many chameleons, and panther chameleons in particular, have the remarkable ability to exhibit complex and rapid colour changes during social interactions such as male contests or courtship. It is generally interpreted that these changes are due to dispersion/aggregation of pigment-containing organelles within dermal chromatophores. 

But, combining microscopy, photometric videography and photonic band-gap modelling, we show that chameleons shift colour through active tuning of a lattice of guanine nanocrystals within a superficial thick layer of dermal iridophores. In addition, we show that a deeper population of iridophores with larger crystals reflects a substantial proportion of sunlight especially in the near-infrared range.

 The organization of iridophores into two superposed layers constitutes an evolutionary novelty for chameleons, which allows some species to combine efficient camouflage with spectacular display, while potentially providing passive thermal protection. –src

Giffed by: rudescience  From: This video

markscherz:

Meet Calumma uetzi, one of three new species of chameleons we described in The Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society today! Is it the most beautiful chameleon species? Well, you’ll have to decide for yourself. But certainly it has an impressive 

Here, a male is giving a female the full colourshow, and she is not. having it. 

You can read a little more about the new species and request the PDF here!

Photos by Frank Glaw