Chameleons Research Paper

Like a myth coming to life, chameleons have a “superpower” that we wish we had: genetic camouflage. Though tons of animals can do this, the chameleon is the most iconic. They use this ability to heat up, communicate, warn off predators, or to find a mate. Scientists have studied how they do this in order to see if this can aid the human race. This research paper is on the process in which chameleons change their skin tone and how they survive with such a unique ability.

Pigment causes skin tone for just about every animal, including humans. Unlike people chameleons have different uses for pigment. In a chameleon, hormones effect pigment cells, which leads to their change of colour. The movement of melanin pigment “packets”, contained in melanophores, changes the animal’s shade. A chameleon has many layers of skin. Its main layers are the outer layer, yellow layer, and the scattering layer. Its first layer is see through so the pigments are more visible. The upper multilayer is incharge of the rapid colour change. …show more content…
A layer, under the yellow pigment layer, of cells contains small particles. When light hits these cells, the light’s bluer part spreads in several directions, but the redder part is barely scattered, and continues its original path. This mechanism is the same when producing a clear blue sky and the redness of sunrises and sunsets. Melanin, granules of a dark pigment, is contained in the cell layer under the light-scattering cell layer. Unlike most cells melanin granules can be moved around in a cell. They can gather together or distribute widely in a clump in the cell by hormones. The cells containing granules have branches which stretch up into the 2 layers above. The blue light produced from the scattering layer mixes with red, orange, yellow, and green light which is reflected by the cells below its