Why How and Which Animals Can Change Colors -10 Amazing Animals That Change Their Colors Other Than Chameleons and Humans

 

“Mother Nature is the greatest artist” -  Rico Besserdich

What comes to your mind first when you read or hear ‘color changing’ animals? Maybe a chameleon or people who constantly change their colors through their behavior. Therefore, I have not included Chameleon and humans in the following list as both of them are very popular in terms of color change and everyone is well aware of them. A wide variety of species of arthropods, cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish, octopuses, and their relatives), amphibians, reptiles, and fish can change color.

You can watch YouTube video on this topic which includes amazing short videos of these animals:  https://youtu.be/7pZO4pj7C0s 

First of all, let’s understand why the organism has to change its color. There are three main reasons to change color:

a)              to avoid predators (camouflage)

b)             to hunt

c)              to communicate (for mating, warning, etc)

How do organisms change their colors?

This depends on what species we are considering. The majority of species perform Metachrosis. Metachrosis is a mechanism by which rapid color change is done through the translocation of pigments and reorientation of reflective plates within small, sack-like organs known as chromatophores. Certain species of insects perform regulation of fluids within the exoskeleton which results in color change. Whereas, certain organisms do not have any control over color change, for this they depend on environmental conditions.

 

Here is the list of 10 organisms that can change their color:

 

Big Blue Octopus (Octopus cyanae)

1.     Big Blue Octopus (Octopus cyanae): It is found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This diurnal octopus has special cells called chromatophores. Whenever an octopus sees a prey or predator, then the brain of the octopus sends a signal to these chromatophores and changes the color. There are some muscles under the skin of the octopus that give a smooth or bumpy appearance to the octopus according to the environment.

 

White banded Crab Spider (Misuminoides formosipus)

2.    White  banded Crab Spider (Misuminoides formosipus): They are native to parts of the United States as well as Canada. The line or ridge-like appearance in the area near its face, below the eyes, earns the species its name. These spiders can change the colors between yellow and and it can take up to three days to change the colors. color is obtained due to present guanine and uric acid in their epidermis and yellow color is obtained due to ommochrome pigments. These spiders hide by changing the color between the flowers which is called camouflage and prey on the other insects/pollinators.

 

Common Cuttlefish

3.     Cuttlefish: Commonly known as cuttles, they are cephalopods of Order Sepiida. They are distributed around the world, and over 120 unique cuttlefish species have been discovered. Many species of cuttlefish can change color. Cuttlefish is also called the ‘Chameleon of The Sea’ because it can change the color of its skin within a second. Cuttlefishes use their skin color to avoid predators and for camouflage. They also change the color, pattern, and shape of their skin to communicate with other cuttlefish and to capture their prey. This is done by using chromatophores, iridophores, and leucophores under their skin.

 

Golden Tortoise Beetle (Charidotella sexpunctata)

4.     Golden Tortoise Beetle (Charidotella sexpunctata): The golden tortoise beetle is distributed widely in eastern North America, west to about Iowa and Texas.  Its color appears golden because it reflects light rays with fluids present in its exoskeleton. But when external conditions change the beetle has a rare ability to dry the fluids which changes its color to dark red. Its exoskeletons have numerous layers. It adjusts the fluid in it to reflect different wavelengths of light and displays a variety of color shades. Scientists have not found out why the beetles change color, but they think that this helps in avoiding predators by showing the beetle as a poisonous insect.

 

Pacific Tree Frog (Pseudacris regilla)

5.     Pacific Tree Frog (Pseudacris regilla): This amphibian is also known as the Pacific chorus frog. The Pacific Tree Frog ranges from British Columbia, Canada to the tip of Baja California, México, and eastward to Montana and Nevada. It can change its color from brown to green. But neither does it change the color to match its surroundings nor it controls this color change. Chromatophores under their skin change color according to air temperature and humidity, which means that color change depends on the environment, not on the frog.

Flounder (Flatfish)

6.     Flounders: They are a group of flatfish species. It changes color to match its surrounding. The process of changing colors and textures is very complex and its mechanism is not completely understood yet. It changes color in just 8 seconds and its eyes and hormones are involved in this process. By experiments, it is known that they can change colors like the Checkerboard of Chess.

Seahorses (Hippocampus sp.)

7.     Seahorses (Hippocampus sp.): Seahorses also change color chromatophores, which are embedded in their skin. Each chromatophore contains one of three or four pigments. Enlargement or retrenchment of the chromatophores via tiny muscles results in different colors being exhibited with varying intensity. The color change is used to avoid predators and to communicate with other Seahorses.

Mimic Octopus [left] mimicking the sea creatures (Flatfish, Lionfish, Seasnake)[right]

8.     Mimic Octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus): It inhibits the Indo-Pacific oceans. This octopus changes color and mimics other animals such as sea snake, jellyfish, lionfish, sea anemone, mantis shrimp, crabs, and flatfish. It changes the color to frighten the predators, as camouflage, and to attract the prey. It is seen that mimic octopus can mimic the predator’s predator. It is intelligent enough to decide which mimicry behavior would be most suitable at moment and acts upon it. This octopus also has chromatophores under its skin.

Squid

9.     Squids: Squids are cephalopods of Superorder Decapodiformes whose skin is covered in controllable chromatophores of different colors, enabling the squid to match its coloration to its surroundings. They can also change colors like cuttlefish, octopus, and other cephalopods for camouflage, communication, protection, and hunting. Squid make use of diverse kinds of camouflage, namely dynamic camouflage for background corresponding (in shallow water) and counter-illumination (Bioluminescence). This helps to protect them from their predators and allows them to approach their prey.

 Betta Fish (Betta splendens)

10.  Betta Fishes (Betta splendens): It is endemic to the freshwaters of southeast Asia and is also known as Siamese Fighting Fish. It is an aquarium pet fish that changes color over time in response to the diet, age, aquarium conditions (temperature, pH, salinity, etc.) stress, or disease. Similar to the Pacific Tree Frog, it changes colors with respect to environmental changes. If you have this fish in your aquarium, you must have seen it changing colors.

Here ends the list of organisms that changes color. As I said in the beginning, there are many more such organisms in wild that change their color. Comment those which I have not enlisted in this list.

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