OCTO-CAMO: Octopus Camouflage

The art of camouflage: a selection of incredible and spectacular Octopus videos

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The Octopus is an extraordinary animal which has many fascinating features. One of them is its amazing transformation ability. The Octopus can morph to almost any shape and change the texture and the color of its skin extremely rapidly.  By doing that, he can hide from enemies or, on the contrary, impress them with flashing dissuasive colors. The following videos are probably the most famous: they almost look like they are fake!

Most cephalopods (which are basically mollusks with tentacles) have this ability to change color, called homochromy. The male cuttlefish displays dynamic glowing color patterns to know if another cuttlefish is a male or not.

How does it work? Well a bit like a TV flat screen. The cephalopod’s skin is made of two layers of different specialized cells which can change the apparent color, opacity, and reflectiveness of the skin. The upper layer is made of pigment bearing cells called chromatophores which are responsible for the yellow, orange, red, brown, or black color. They are like little pockets filled with ink which can be emptied when the cell is contracted. The lower layer is composed of cells containing crystals which can modify the light reflected by the skin, creating shiny, glowing or metallic effects. These cells are like pixels on a screen. The combination of the different pixels generates almost any color. Cuttlefish can even communicate between them using the light polarization. How the cephalopods manage to control and adapt the color to their environment is yet not completely understood.
Roger Hanlon from the Marine Biological Laboratory (Massachusetts) has studied these animals for a long time. His page is full of extraordinary videos. In this one, you can see how the chromatophores work:

These animals are also able to change their body shape and texture by activating tiny muscles in their skin: the papillae. That way, they can grow spikes and bumps to look exactly like seaweed or rocks.

The mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus), a specie discovered in Indonesia in the 90’s, has developed the most impressive imitation skills. It can mimicry the appearance and the behavior of a large range of animals: sea snakes, flatfish etc. Sometimes, one can’t even tell what it’s trying to seem like!

To learn more:

-Enter "cuttlefish", "mimic octopus" ou "octopus camouflage" in your search engine!

-Visit Roger Hanlon's website

-Watch this last video:

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