Technicolor Dream Fish
Lots of animals can change the color of their skin, but there’s nothing quite like the chameleon sand tilefish, which can change its appearance in an instant and flash the colors of the rainbow.
So how is there apparent magic act possible? Native to the Indo-Pacific, mostly off the coasts of Japan and the Philippines, the tilefish are equipped with groups of cells called iridophore, made of adjustable reflective cells called platelets that can change what colors they reflect. Then it’s all up to a series of spacing and position and their response from chemical signals from the body.
SciShow’s Rose Bear Don’t Walk, in her channel debut, tells us more of this unusual creature of the sea.
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