Color moods environment animation12/3/2023 ![]() When the distance between them changes, they reflect a different wavelength of light. Each of these points of light is an array of crystals. When chameleons change color, they’re actually tuning the distance between the salt crystals, which changes the color of light reflected. But unlike Morhpo butterflies, chameleons have evolved the ability to move the structure. The brilliant blue wings of the Morpho butterfly,Ī colorful species found in the tropics, have a similar structure tko the tiny crystals in chameleons. The result is bright green skin that contains no green pigment! What we perceive as green, for example, is blue wavelengths of light being reflected off the crystals and through the layer of yellow xanthophore cells in the chameleon’s epidermis. But what we’re actually seeing is light that is bouncing off of these tiny crystals. The result, to our eyes, is the beautiful rainbow of colors on the chameleon’s skin. When light hits the crystals, some wavelengths are absorbed and some are reflected. These cells contain microscopic salt crystals, which are arranged in a three-dimensional pattern like oranges stacked on a fruit stand. Just beneath the chameleon’s skin is a layer of cells called iridophores. But the amount of pigment in the cells stays the same, even when the chameleon changes color.Įarlier this year, Michel Milinkovitch, an evolutionary geneticist and biophysicist in the Department of Genetics and Evolution at the University of Geneva and a team of researchers discovered that Panther chameleons change color using a crystalline structure beneath their top layer of skin. The top layer of chameleon skin – called the epidermis – contains yellow pigment cells called xanthophores, and red pigment cells called erythrophores. Scientists used to believe that chameleons changed color by spreading out pigments in their skin, much like octopuses or squid do. But how did they evolve the ability to change color? Chameleons are some of the most brilliantly colored animals on the planet.
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