page_title: Chromatophore
hierarchical_section_title: Chromatophore
caption_attribution_description: I made this composite and donate it to public domain 中文: 黑色素細胞的色素變化
context_page_description: Chromatophores are pigment-containing and light-reflecting cells found in amphibians, fish, reptiles, crustaceans, and cephalopods. They are largely responsible for generating skin and eye colour in cold-blooded animals.
  Some species can rapidly change colour so as to keep in camouflage, or to signal. They do this by moving pigment and reflective plates in chromatophores. This process is called physiological colour change. Cephalopods such as octopus have complex chromatophore organs controlled by muscles to achieve this. The display is under central nervous control based usually on input from the eyes.
  Vertebrates such as chameleons get a similar effect by cell signalling. Such signals can be hormones or neurotransmitters. They may be started by changes in mood, temperature, stress or visible changes around the animal.
context_section_description: Chromatophores are pigment-containing and light-reflecting cells found in amphibians, fish, reptiles, crustaceans, and cephalopods. They are largely responsible for generating skin and eye colour in cold-blooded animals.
  Some species can rapidly change colour so as to keep in camouflage, or to signal. They do this by moving pigment and reflective plates in chromatophores. This process is called physiological colour change. Cephalopods such as octopus have complex chromatophore organs controlled by muscles to achieve this. The display is under central nervous control based usually on input from the eyes.
  Vertebrates such as chameleons get a similar effect by cell signalling. Such signals can be hormones or neurotransmitters. They may be started by changes in mood, temperature, stress or visible changes around the animal.
caption: A single zebrafish melanophore imaged by time-lapse photography during pigment aggregation
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