What Happens Inside a Chameleon that Changes Its Skin Color?
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Chameleons are so cool! Think about having skin that changes color when there is a change in temperature, or if you get excited –upset–mad–don’t feel well. We would not be able to “hide our feelings.” But it would be fun for just one day.
It might be fun to have color changing skin like a chameleon. But unlike chameleons, I would want to have control over when my skin color changed and the new color.
A chameleon has four layers of skin and except for the top layer all have special cells that contain pigment. Pigment is a chemical that absorbs and/or reflects different parts of visible light, which is energy that you perceive as different colors. The range of colors from least to the most energy are: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. White light, such as sunlight contains the entire spectrum of colors.
More About Pigments
A pigment is a chemical, made up of a protein with a special group of chemical elements attached to it. This add-on group of chemicals is called a chromophore and it produces the color in the chameleon’s skin.
Chromophores absorb part of the light energy of white light and reflect part of it. The part that is reflected is what gives the pigment its color.
In a chameleon, light can penetrate the four skin layers. Some of the light energy is absorbed and some is reflected, which means it moves away from the chameleon’s skin and it what enters your eyes and you perceive the color.
Melanocyte is the name of a pigment cell. The suffiix--cyte tells you that it is a cell, and the prefix-melan identifies the pigment in the cell, which is melanin. Melanin is a brownish pigment that is present in human skin.
The pigment in cells, such as the melonocytes in the diagram are like tiny grains. When they group together, most of the cell is transparent, meaning light passes and the pigment has little affect on the color of the cell. But, when the pigment grains spread throughout the cell, the cell is the color of the light energy the pigment reflects.
This is not an accurate diagram, but one to provide basic understanding of how the pigmented skin of a chameleon absorbs and reflects light energy. All the colors are exaggerated to make them easy to see. It not the accuracy of the colors that is being presented. Instead the diagram represents the process of color production by the absorbing, refection, and combining of different light energy. The melanocytes in the 4th layer, being dark will absorb more light energy than the other pigmented cells. Thus, when the melanin in these cells spread out, the skin is darker. The opposite is also true. When the melanin groups, more light is reflected and the skin is lighter and brighter in color.
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Human Body skin color-pigments and more |