What do you think of this fact?
Chameleon on a red sweater, chameleon turns red. That’s how a lot of people picture the trick. Real chameleons work differently, and in a much more interesting way.
Color as a message
According to a 2015 study, chameleons don’t change color mainly for camouflage. They use it to communicate with other lizards and to respond to temperature or mood.
It’s especially obvious in males. When a male spots a rival, he typically shifts from green to yellow, orange or red. He even does it when all he sees is his own reflection. A male who loses the showdown turns darker, which one study describes as a “leave me alone” signal. Females use their coloring to show whether they’re ready to mate.
Crystals, not paint pots
For a long time, researchers thought chameleons shuffled pigments around in their skin cells. In 2015, a team led by Michel Milinkovitch at the University of Geneva showed in the journal Nature Communications that it works differently.
Under the skin sits a lattice of tiny nanocrystals. Milinkovitch describes it as “a selective mirror”. When the animal is calm, the crystals sit close together and reflect blue and green light. When it gets excited, it tenses its skin, the spacing grows, and it reflects longer wavelengths such as red and orange.
Bonus fact: A deeper layer of cells reflects near-infrared light. That probably helps the chameleon avoid overheating in the sun.
The researchers studied panther chameleons from Madagascar, which are famous for their dramatic color shifts.
So the chameleon isn’t hiding behind its color. It’s wearing its mood out in the open.