How does a Chameleons camouflage actually work? Is it able to camouflage to anything, if so how?
In: Biology
So the colour of skin in most organisms is determined by pigments produced in superficial layers of their skin.
So for example, in humans our skin has three layers, the hypodermis, dermis and epidermis (with epidermis being the most superficial/outside). In the epidermis are cells that produce varying amounts of melanin to produce skin colour.
Species like chameleons however have special types of cells in their dermis (middle layer of skin) called chromatophores. Chromatophores have two main mechanisms of making colour- they either contain pigment (molecules that reflect specific colours) or structures that are so dense they can reflect specific colours (kind of like how the sky is blue because light bounces off and scatters between billions of air molecules).
This provides two methods for chameleons to change colour rapidly:
1. Their chromatophores can either compact or spread out specific combinations of pigment to produce different colours (pack up loads of red pigment = red, pack up some red and green = yellow).
2. They can change the size/density of the structures. Chameleons have huge sheets nanocrystals that they can make more compact or spread out to change which shades of light will scatter and which won’t.
In regards to can they change into ANY colours, potentially? It depends on if they have the correct pigments or structures to produce the needed colour.
As a note though chameleons don’t necessarily use their colour changing for camouflage. Many species of chameleon just use it to signal their mood to other chameleons (like bright red will warn rivals to stay away) or even just to control their body heat by going darker when they’re cold or lighter if they’re warm!
Chameleons have chromatophores which are special cells in their skin which they use to change colour. However they mostly change colour for social communication reasons rather than camouflage and the change is relatively slow. The real masters of disguise are the cephalopods like octopuses and cuttlefish who have more complicated chromatophore organs which allow for rapid colour and texture change to mimic their surroundings, if you YouTube octopus camouflage there are some incredible examples.
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