--- title: Scientists Just Found Out How Chameleons Change Color description: According to a new study, it's to do with tiny mirror-like crystals in the reptile's skin. canonical: https://time.com/3740088/heres-how-chameleons-change-color/ author: Rishi Iyengar article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-11T07:16:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:40:55.621Z article:section: Science og:title: Scientists Just Learned How Chameleons Change Color og:description: What color is #ThisChameleon? og:url: https://time.com/3740088/heres-how-chameleons-change-color/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d42e2f4beeb969a/6987831f55a859fa3ea863db/167542404.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3572 og:image:height: 2009 og:image:alt: 167542404 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Scientists Just Learned How Chameleons Change Color twitter:description: What color is #ThisChameleon? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d42e2f4beeb969a/6987831f55a859fa3ea863db/167542404.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientists Just Found Out How Chameleons Change Color > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Future Proof: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Future Proof is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Making sense of the climate and energy economy. Future Proof examines the forces transforming energy and climate, and what those changes mean for business, technology, policy and the global economy. Senior correspondent Justin Worland goes beyond traditional climate coverage to connect the energy transition to the bigger decisions reshaping companies, markets and society. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Extinction Close-Up: Madagascar [Watch (HLS stream): Extinction Close-Up: Madagascar](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jNHh9GQ7.m3u8) (6:00)  _Published 2009-04-03. TIME's Bryan Walsh reports on the amazing wildlife of Madagascar and the struggles its animals face against extinction_ by [Rishi Iyengar](https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Mar 11, 2015 7:16 AM UTC  hanging around hanging around MarkBridger—Getty Images/Flickr RF by [Rishi Iyengar](https://time.com/author/rishi-iyengar/) ## Rishi Iyengar Mar 11, 2015 7:16 AM UTC Scientists may have finally [unlocked the mystery](http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150302/ncomms7368/full/ncomms7368.html#/introduction) behind chameleons’ unique ability to change color. The explanation is that the reptile’s skin is made up of tiny mirror-like crystals, contained within reflective pigment cells called iridophores. That’s according to a new study published in the journal _Nature Communications_. When the chameleon gets excited, or anticipates danger, the iridophores expand or contract to enable the crystals to reflect different levels of light, thereby changing its skin color. ### See The Best Biology Photos Of The Year  Two Bisons on the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. Lukas Gawenda  A spider at sunset in Predel, Bulgaria. Krasimir Matarov  Parasitoid wasps building clay pots in Borneo, Brunei. Thomas Endlein  Siblings watering newly planted seedlings in Rizal, The Philippines. Ysabel M Victoriano  A leopard in its natural habitat in Karantaka, India. Nagarjun Ram  A farmer protects his family and animals from mosquitos in Gujarat, India. Dimple Pancholi  A tarsier in its natural habitat in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Wolfgang Weinhardt  A plant takes advantage of the available shelter in a dilapidated house in Kolmanskop, Namibia. Kelsey Green  A female blackbird holding a dried mealworm in her mouth in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. Billy Clapham  A chick embryo in a hardened eggshell is sustained until full development in Rizal, The Philippines. Robert Cabagnot  An adult female Italian crested newt stationed below the fresh water surface in Piedmont, Italy. Matteo Riccardo Di Nicola  A sea turtle eating a jellyfish in The Maldives. Boris Barath The researchers used a combination of microscopy, high-resolution videography and color-based numerical modeling to arrive at this discovery. “When the skin is in the relaxed state, the nanocrystals in the iridophore cells are very close to each other — hence, the cells specifically reflect short wavelengths, such as blue,” Michel Milinkovitch, a professor of genetics and evolution at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and the lead author of the study, [told Live Science](http://www.livescience.com/50096-chameleons-color-change.html). Milinkovitch further explained that, when excited, the nanocrystals spread further apart to reflect longer wavelengths like yellow, red and orange, which combine with blue to produce different hues. If any of those hues is [white, gold, black, or blue](http://time.com/3725528/dress-explainer-white-gold-blue-black-science/), we might just have chameleons breaking the Internet soon. _Read next:_ [_The Weird Reason Humans Shake Hands as a Greeting_](http://time.com/3729900/weird-science-handshakes-smell/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ## Transcript >> Okay, little guy. You can get off me now. And go on and prance so I can take your picture. >> This is Russell Mittermeier, a primatologist and the president and co- founder of the wildlife group, Conservation International. Mittermeier travels the world, helping to protect endangered species. His work is extremely hands- on. >> This is the biggest diversity of chameleons in the world. You get-- >> Uh- huh. >> probably pushing 70 species now. >> This might look like your typical American zoo, but it's actually Madagascar-- a small island nation off the southeastern coast of Africa. It's home to an amazingly unique collection of animals and plants. In fact, around 5 percent of the world's species are believed to only exist on Madagascar. Best known, the lemurs. The small, playful type of primate found only in Madagascar. There are over 100 species of lemurs on the island. And many of them have been discovered by Mittermeier himself. >> Madagascar has been isolated from the African mainland for at least 160 million years, and isolated and separated from India for about 90 million years. So, over this very long period, it's evolved in isolation and is really a living laboratory, a unique evolutionary experiment in every sense of the word. And most of what you find there is only found there and nowhere else. And that's not just at the level of species, but you have entire families, entire genera of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, plants, that are found nowhere else in the world. >> More time you spend with him, the easier it is to understand Mittermeier's fascination with Madagascar. The island is a fantasy world for exotic animals because it's so isolated, which gives evolution time to do its work. That isolation also makes for a very delicate ecosystem because if a species goes extinct to Madagascar, as many plants and animals already have, that means they're likely gone from the planet forever. Conservationists like Mittermeier are trying to stop that cycle from continuing. >> I'm the eternal optimist, and I believe that we will-- we will push through the problems that we have right now, get things back on track, and continue on the path that we're on to really make Madagascar a great conservation model. >> Today, Madagascar and its wildlife are still threatened by massive deforestation. More than 80 percent of the country's original vegetation has been destroyed, along with hunting and erosion. Now, you can add political instability to that list. The former mayor of the capital city forced out the president of Madagascar recently, leaving up political vacuum that poachers and loggers are taking advantage of. That puts conservation groups working in Madagascar in a tight spot. >> When you have problems like this, you don't just bail out. If there is political unrest, if there is civil strife, you don't just pack up your bags and leave. That's the absolute worst thing you can do. And it makes it particularly bad for those poor people who are living in the rural areas adjacent to protected areas and elsewhere. They're the ones who suffer the most. So, we absolutely should not pull out our aide to these kinds of projects that are so critically important for the future of the country, and especially for these poor rural communities. >> We often think of conservationists as only caring about endangered animals. But in fact, Mittermeier and his colleagues now spend much of their time trying to help people. In Madagascar, the best conservation works by supporting programs that can help channel income to the poor who live closest to the wildlife without hurting nature. >> It's absolutely essential that we have very strong engagement with local communities, and that those local people benefit in a major way. They see that conservation is the best path for them to achieve a higher standard of living, and to really have a well- being in the future for themselves and for their children. >> For people living on less than a dollar a day, as 61 percent of those Madagascar do, a job as a guide or working around a park represents a real economic opportunity. Madagascar has a potential to be a successful ecotourism spot. The economic and political crisis has put that on the back burner for now. Mittermeiers hoping that it will pick up soon. >> What we need to do is start to really build into the human psyche that these areas need to be protected not just for the wildlife. They're not a luxury. Their survival is critical to our own survival. And if we start recognizing that, then I think we can build systems, we can build broader landscapes and seascapes that will enable us to survive in this increasingly overcrowded and over- consumptive planet. >> We hear about conservation and the threat of extinction all the time. And no small amount of money now goes into saving animals. But in the world where hundreds of millions of people still go hungry everyday, and the global recession is impacting us all, it's easy to wonder why we should care. >> To me, it's tragic to let something that has been created over millions of years of evolution go extinct when for so little money, we can protect these animals and plants, we can bring them back from the brink of extinction. So for me, conservation, ultimately, is a moral obligation and in many ways, it's really the-- simply the right thing to do for civilized 21st century society. >> You can put an economic value on healthy environment of living species. But in the end, it has to be much more than that. Ultimately, there's an innate value to untrammelled biodiversity. When that is lost, we ourselves are irretrievably diminished. 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