INTRODUCTION
Thermoregulation is a complicated process requiring the sensing of surroundings condition and processing of that information so that animals can regulate their core temperature based on the change in environmental temperature (Seebacher & Franklin, 2005) to carry out metabolism and allow the functions of biologically sensitive enzymes and cells. Thus, allowing animals to survive in different environments including some extreme ones i.e. desert. Ectotherms such as lizards which have resultant control over metabolic processes, can thermoregulate through heat exchange processes based on behavioural or physiological adaptions (Huey & Slatkin, 1976). Other fascinating characteristic of some lizards is colour changing which normally …show more content…
However, there are some that have a more substantial colour change such as the Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis) which has colour variation from brown to bright green and, of course, the chameleons (family Chamaeleonidae) which can make changes to their colours and form patterns too. As for the three types of colour changes of these three different species, the underlying physiological mechanism are actually different in some sense. For the bearded dragon lizard, this species similarly to many other species of lizards can change its colour at will by quickly changing the density of pigments in the specialised cells known as chromatophores, thus turning the overall colour of the skin to a lighter or darker tone. As for the Carolina anole, it has three layers of chromatophores, responsible for different colour pigmentation and these pigments change colours based on the behaviour of the lizard such as social interactions, activity levels, camouflage and individual stress levels, and also thermoregulation (Claussen & Art, 1981). Finally, as for the chameleons, unlike other species of lizards, they have evolved two iridophores (reflective pigments) with different morphologies, upper layer can actively tune the guanine nanocrystal spacing into triangular lattice to have a quick structural colour change and the deeper layer of cells reflect near-infrared range (NIR) of light (Teyssier, Saenko, & Milinkovitch, 2015). These two different layers enable chameleons to efficiently camouflage and dramatically change its
Thermoregulation is a complicated process requiring the sensing of surroundings condition and processing of that information so that animals can regulate their core temperature based on the change in environmental temperature (Seebacher & Franklin, 2005) to carry out metabolism and allow the functions of biologically sensitive enzymes and cells. Thus, allowing animals to survive in different environments including some extreme ones i.e. desert. Ectotherms such as lizards which have resultant control over metabolic processes, can thermoregulate through heat exchange processes based on behavioural or physiological adaptions (Huey & Slatkin, 1976). Other fascinating characteristic of some lizards is colour changing which normally …show more content…
However, there are some that have a more substantial colour change such as the Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis) which has colour variation from brown to bright green and, of course, the chameleons (family Chamaeleonidae) which can make changes to their colours and form patterns too. As for the three types of colour changes of these three different species, the underlying physiological mechanism are actually different in some sense. For the bearded dragon lizard, this species similarly to many other species of lizards can change its colour at will by quickly changing the density of pigments in the specialised cells known as chromatophores, thus turning the overall colour of the skin to a lighter or darker tone. As for the Carolina anole, it has three layers of chromatophores, responsible for different colour pigmentation and these pigments change colours based on the behaviour of the lizard such as social interactions, activity levels, camouflage and individual stress levels, and also thermoregulation (Claussen & Art, 1981). Finally, as for the chameleons, unlike other species of lizards, they have evolved two iridophores (reflective pigments) with different morphologies, upper layer can actively tune the guanine nanocrystal spacing into triangular lattice to have a quick structural colour change and the deeper layer of cells reflect near-infrared range (NIR) of light (Teyssier, Saenko, & Milinkovitch, 2015). These two different layers enable chameleons to efficiently camouflage and dramatically change its