Squid's colorful, changeable skin enables the animal -- and their close relatives, cuttlefish and octopus -- to display extraordinary camouflage, the speed and diversity of which is unmatched in the animal kingdom.
But how squid control their skin's iridescence, or light-reflecting property, which is responsible for the animal's sparkly rainbow of color, has been unknown.
In a new study, MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) researchers Paloma Gonzalez Bellido and Trevor Wardill and their colleagues report that nerves in squid skin control the animal's spectrum of shimmering hues -- from red to blue -- as well as their speed of change. The work marks the first time neural control of iridescence in an invertebrate species has been demonstrated.
This will be relevant to camoflage and cloaking technology. To read more, click here.