Researchers blame the crystals called iridophores present in the chameleons skin, which gives the reason why these species could change colors, Yahoo News reported.
For humans change color, that could mean something, usually a detrimental manifestation of a bad health condition. However, for chameleons, according to experts, they do these changing of skin color in order to survive - an adaptation process that helped the species exist, even when the natural process tried to eliminate them.
Experts say that chameleons change skin colors if they would like to blend into the shades of the environment or sometimes they would do this to discourage predators of eating them and they would imitate some poisonous, aggressive, dark little creatures. Because of the amazing characteristic of the animal skin, many science enthusiasts had the interest of revealing how these animals could change their skin colors.
When Michel Milinkovitch, the co-author of the study at the University of Geneva, told the ABC News, the so called iridophores in the skin of chameleons are crystal-like structures that usually act as mirrors.
After putting the animals into a set-up wherein they were threatened by another species, Milinkovitch and the team observed that there was modification on the iridophores, in size and in color, when they scraped a sample of it and placed it in a petri dish.
According to a journal in Natures Communication, it would depend on the position of the animal and the light available in the surroundings, which the chameleons could use in order to deter those that would try to attack them. With these crystals that act as mirrors, these species are capable of reflecting different shades.
The success of the study was actually because of the spectroscopic method used by the scientists involved in the research wherein it covers the interaction between matter and light.