scientist have long been beguile by the chromatophores — tiny , circular pigment - filled structures — engraft in the cutis of octopus and other cephalopods , which allow them to change color and grain limitlessly . Previous inquiry had express that most other shellfish , including scallops and snails , can smell out high spirits or darkness through their skin ( though they ca n’t change color ) . scientist wondered if the same held dead on target for cephalopods , and whether it is tied to their camo power .
Now , a newpairofstudies , both publish lately in theJournal of Experimental Biology , have rule evidence of radiosensitivity in cephalopodan skin . In the first written report , researchers from the University of Maryland - Baltimore found rhodopsin , a light - sensitive protein unremarkably plant in retina , in the skin of a calamary and two types of cuttlefish .
In the second , scientist from UC – Santa Barbara discovered that light causes the chromatophores in devilfish skin to dilate . They are most sensitive to blue light .
Scientists dubbed this behavior lightly - activated chromatophore expansion ( or LACE ) . Intriguingly , the sensitiveness of the LACE - related light sensors closely matches the jazz spectral sensibility of opsin , a protein found in the eye of octopus .
Of course , octopus and other cephalopod still have eyes through which they see in the more traditional gumption , but " this is the first evidence that cephalopodan dermal tissues , and specifically chromatophores , may own the requisite combining of molecules demand to respond to Christ Within , " according to the Maryland scientist .
These new determination brook the theory that cutis - based light - sensitivity start with an ancestral mollusc , and that this characteristic evolved over sentence to give cephalopod mollusk their power to change their appearance quick and unendingly . However , it ’s not clear-cut exactly how the radiosensitivity affect that power now .
[ h / t]Science ]
