Seeing the panther chaleon hide behind the leaves, the visitors gradually dispersed to look at other animals.
Daigo looked at the half of the chaleon's body sticking out from the leaves and stroked his chin, musing, "Hmm, aren't chaleons supposed to change their body color to match their environnt? The enclosure here has brown tree trunks and green leaves, so why would its body turn red and yellow? And there's even blue on it, how does it change to that?"
Lin Hao shook his head sowhat puzzledly, indicating that he wasn't very clear about it either.
The educational exhibit signs in the reptile house were relatively fewer because of the large number of animals present. Apart from animals like the Chinese giant salamander, which were given more focus, not every animal had a detailed exhibit sign—just a picture of the animal, its habitat, and a simple introduction were provided.
The educational signs were generally located at the corners of the gallery walkways, mainly introducing a certain category of animals!
Lili browsed more casually, not examining each exhibit box as the two n did. She hardly looked at lizards and little turtles that seed dull and plain, only admiring the animals with higher visual appeal and beautiful appearances for a long ti.
By this ti, she had moved on ahead and quietly called the others, pointing at a sign in front of her: "Hey, look, there's an explanation for why chaleons change colors!"
The sign began with two very interesting questions!
If a chaleon were placed on a neon light that continuously changed color, would the chaleon keep changing its color until it died of exhaustion?
If soone threw a handful of colorful rainbow candy towards a chaleon, what color would it beco?
Daigo was imdiately startled: "Holy shit, who cos up with these ideas? Lovers of chaleons express strong condemnation towards neon lights and rainbow candy!"
Lin Hao couldn't help but comnt: "The chaleon says, 'I might not be human, but you guys are really dogs!'"
They didn't rush to read the reasons but first pondered on their own.
The first question should be a no, right? If it really kept changing colors until death, it wouldn't be dying of exhaustion, but rather of stupidity.
Throwing rainbow candy—would it randomly turn into so color, or keep changing colors?
However, he soon dismissed that idea because they had just witnessed an example of the chaleon changing color. The enclosure contained tree trunks and green leaves, yet the chaleon turned red and yellow, which had nothing to do with the environnt!
The information on the sign explained that in the biological world, colors originate from two sources: pignt coloration and structural coloration!
Pignt coloration is due to chemical substances absorbing and reflecting certain wavelengths of visible light, whereas structural coloration is the color produced by a physical structure, like the rainbow on a CD.
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It was once believed that the color changes in chaleons were due to external environntal stimuli that caused a redistribution of pignt granules in skin cells, thereby changing their coloration. But recent research has found that many chaleons actually lack green pignt.
So why can they appear green? It's because beneath the pignt cells on the surface of chaleons' skin lies a layer of iridophores. These cells contain nanocrystals arranged in a triangular lattice, and these crystals are the key factor in color change.
When a chaleon is relaxed, the crystals in the iridophores are packed tightly and reflect blue light, which, passing through the yellow pignt of the outer skin, makes the chaleon appear green.
When stressed, the spacing between the crystals expands, allowing light of longer wavelengths to be reflected, causing the chaleon's color to change within the range of yellow to red.
Thus, the coloration a chaleon presents to the human eye is a combination of the chemical colors of the pignt cells and the structural colors reflected by the iridophore layer.
Generally, only male chaleons have vivid and striking colors, while females are much duller, and this is because males have a more developed layer of iridophores.
Therefore, chaleons primarily change color to express emotions and send signals, acting as a language for communication and interaction among themselves!
"So that's how it is!"
Lin Hao had an epiphany after reading the display board.
Thinking about the question ntioned at the beginning of the board, when the neon light changes color, the chaleon perched on it simply remains green and indifferent, right?
So, the panther chaleon just now probably turned red and yellow because it got nervous from being watched by visitors, and then it hid behind the leaves.
With this knowledge, he looked back at the enclosure of the panther chaleon he'd seen earlier.
Now that the visitors had dispersed, it crawled out from behind the leaves again, regaining its calm blue-green hue.
Lin Hao felt a strange sensation in his heart; he had initially only admired its rainbow-like beauty, but now he suddenly could sense its mood.
It truly was an animal whose "emotions are reflected in its color!"
He couldn't help but tell Daigo, "Actually, I wasn't particularly excited about visiting today, thinking reptiles were cold and boring, but my impression has sowhat changed now, they seem quite interesting! I'm even considering getting myself a chaleon."
Daigo chuckled and said, "Yeah! Especially the environnt of the exhibit hall, it's fantastic. I think anything looks interesting in such a beautiful exhibition space."
Lizards, turtles, chaleons, frogs, snakes, all kinds of animals from various environnts are kept together. After all, to the average visitor, the differences don't seem very big, and if one type of animal were only kept in one area, it would beco visually tiring after a while.
Mixing them together like this helps maintain a fresh visiting experience.
As Lin Hao wandered, he was again attracted by a python in a large display case.
The enclosure boasted richly layered green vegetation, with fresh green moss and ferns at the bottom and climbing figs creeping up the back walls, with a few glistening dewdrops on the leaves, as if it had just rained, bringing a wave of moisture to the face.
It was as if a corner of the tropical rainforest had been captured inside the enclosure!
Several pieces of driftwood were artistically arranged, and on a horizontal trunk slightly above eye level was a heap of green python.
It was draped more than entwined, in the shape of two outward nested "U"s, with its head resting in the middle of the "U", its tail not visible.
In the white eyes, there was a black line, probably the pupil of the green tree python, which looked as if it was about to break, giving it an immovable, sleepy appearance.
On its neatly aligned scales, there lingered so clear, shiny droplets, like freshly rained-on bamboo, vivid and enticing, incredibly beautiful!
"What a beautiful snake!"
Lin Hao was awestruck once more and bent down to look at the label below.
Green tree python, native to places like Australia, a small, arboreal species of python!
Adults generally don't grow beyond 1.8 ters.
A family of three passed by, and the little boy stared at the green tree python, exclaiming with unrestrained joy, "Mama, look, this snake is so pretty!"
The mother, looking scared, clutched her husband's hand, "Oh no, don't let see snakes; I just can't stand them, they give the creeps."
After admiring it for a while and seeing that the green tree python looked fast asleep, motionless, Lin Hao moved on to see other animals.
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