Lizards of the world

[Spalea]

Daniel Rosengren: " A Flap-necked Chameleon in Selous GR, Tanzania. Like the vulture in my previous post, chameleons can change the colour of their skin. But the way they do it and the colors and patterns they can achieve is much more elaborate. Basically, they use nanotechnology and have been doing so long before humans did. Chameleons have two layers in their skin that control their colour. The top layer contains guanine nanocrystals. By changing the spacing between the nanocrystals, the wavelengths of light that are reflected and absorbed change. An increased distance between the nanocrystals leads to the skin reflecting longer wavelengths of light like yellow, orange and red. When there is a shorter distance between the crystals they reflect blue and green. The spacing of the crystals are regulated hormonally.
The different colouring of a chameleon reflects its mood as well as helps camouflaging it. "

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