• Question: Is there any organism in the universe that can camouflage completely to their surroundings? Kind of like the invisibility cloak in Harry Potter (please know what I'm talking about)?

    Asked by anon-232910 to Rebecca on 18 Nov 2019.
    • Photo: Rebecca Shaw

      Rebecca Shaw answered on 18 Nov 2019:


      Hey Anya,

      Love this question and of course I know what you are talking about!! I’m a BIG Hazza P fan.

      So camouflage is as you are right where an organism can blend into their surrounding environment. This is used as a defence system against predators!

      I myself, have witnessed this. I was snorkelling in the Indian Ocean, looking to see what I could find when I stopped near a coral reef. My partner was looking to see what he could find there and thought he had seen something move. After maybe like 10 seconds of seeing nothing, he touched a patch of seagrass and like magic an octopus shot away from us covering us in black ink!

      Most octopus (I’m sure of it) have the ability to camouflage. So they can completely blend into their surroundings. They have chromatophores – colour changing cells that stay just beneath the skin layer. Every one of these types of cell contain sacs with pigment in them and they can control the size of that sac. If the sac is expanded, the colour is brighter. If it is contracted the colour is less so.

      Octopus belong to a family of organisms called cephalopods (squid and cuttlefish are also cephalopods) and most of them have this ability too. Some also have cells that can make them reflect light, making them even more hidden. They can also change their colour to make them look poisonous to their predators or change their shapes/make themselves patterned to look like other organisms!

Comments