The Colorful Farewell: Why Chameleons Erupt With Color Right Before They Die

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Chameleons are celebrated for their incredible ability to change color at will. Due to specialized cells in their skin, they can adapt their coloring to absorb heat, reflect sunlight, and communicate their feelings. But one rather extraordinary chameleon continues to change color even in death. This video captures a female Labord’s chameleon shortly after laying her eggs. In the two hours preceding her death, her body goes through a shocking transformation, producing a psychedelic array of brilliant colors. But why do these chameleons erupt with such a colorful display just before they die?

A Shockingly Short Life

Labord’s chameleons are only found in the arid regions of southwestern Madagascar. They spend the majority of their lives developing in eggs, which are typically laid between February and March. The eggs incubate for eight to nine months, passing through the dry season. Hatching occurs in November, giving the young chameleons just two months to mature into fully formed adults. Then in January or February, males and females come together to mate. Females then lay their eggs, and all the remaining adults die.

Essentially, Labord’s chameleons only live for three to five months outside their eggs. This remarkably short lifespan — one of the shortest of vertebrates — is spent voraciously eating, growing, and reproducing the next generation.

This is greatly influenced by Madagascar’s extreme weather patterns. Chameleons in drier areas tend to have the shortest lifespans, while in regions with more rainfall, chameleons may live for six to nine months and take longer to mature. But no matter where they live, all Labord’s chameleons live very short lives. Even in captivity, they never live more than 1.3 years at most.

The female chameleon in the video above may only be a few months old, but she is already in her final hours of life. Her ultimate act is to lay and bury her eggs, ensuring they are safely protected from the coming dry season. After this, she quietly succumbs to death, having used all of her energy to complete this important task.

A Chameleon’s Colorful Farewell

It is well known that chameleons can change color, but why do so in the final moments of life? To understand this, we first need to briefly review how chameleons change color in life.

Contrary to popular belief, camouflage isn’t really the primary reason a chameleon can change color. Instead, color change is most useful for thermoregulation and communication. Chameleons darken their skin to absorb heat and lighten it to reflect sunlight. They also use color to signal dominance or attract mates.

Chameleons have special cells called chromatophores, which are each filled with different colored pigments. When a chameleon’s mood or temperature shifts, its nervous system tells these pigment cells to expand or shrink, changing the external color of their skin.

However, recent research has revealed another component of this process. Chameleons can also manipulate colored pigments within specialized skin cells called iridophores, which contain tiny nanocrystals. By stretching or relaxing their skin, they alter the spacing and structure of these crystals. This changes how light reflects, producing different colors.

As the chameleon in the video above dies, the erratic activity of her nervous system causes one last brilliant display of color. Even as the body shuts down, the nervous system continues to send signals, telling the chameleon’s crystal-containing cells to change shape and spacing. However, these messages are disorganized and chaotic, resulting in the rapid and random color changes seen in the video.