A Count of Animal Transformation Masters: Mimicry Evolution, All for Survival
In the magical natural world, many animals have their own unique survival skills. Among them are many masters of transformation, who utilize their unique structures to transform themselves, thereby escaping the pursuit of predators, staging spectacular battles and contests in the natural world. We all know that the chameleon is one of the most famous camouflage masters in the animal kingdom. So, do you know other animals that have the ability to transform and camouflage? Let's take a look together.
Flame-colored Skink
The Flame-colored Skink lives in the Amazon rainforest. It wasn't until 2012 that scientists discovered its magical camouflage, which was then known to the public. Generally, young birds need the protection of their adult parents to grow up completely, but the Flame-colored Skink's young birds can survive independently as early as 20 days. They have a very unique camouflage technique. As soon as the Flame-colored Skink is born, it is covered with bright orange-yellow long fluffy hair, which can effectively camouflage itself. It crawls like a caterpillar, and when viewed from the back, it looks like a long-haired yellow caterpillar. And the brighter the color of the caterpillar, the more poisonous it is, which can protect itself from predators.
The Flame-colored Skink crawls like a caterpillar
The original appearance of the Flame-colored Skink
Hemidactylus giganteus
Hemidactylus. Listen to this name, how literary it is! It's hard to tell from the name that it's a caterpillar. This caterpillar is not ordinary, it's distributed in many places in Africa and South America, but few people have ever seen its true appearance, and even if they have seen it, some people who don't know it will be scared away. Why? Because this literary caterpillar can turn into a snake.
The original appearance of the Hemidactylus giganteus caterpillar
When it feels threatened, it will bulge and expand part of its body, looking like a triangular snake's head. In addition, its eyes will become very bright, making its whole body look like a poisonous snake. To make its camouflage more realistic, it sometimes makes a biting action towards the predator to threaten it, protecting itself. But the Hemidactylus giganteus caterpillar doesn't have real venomous teeth, it just does this to scare away the predator. As the Hemidactylus giganteus caterpillar grows up, it will transform into a beautiful butterfly, which is really chic.
Leaf insect
When it comes to animal camouflage masters, the bamboo beetle certainly has a place. The leaf insect is a very skilled camouflage rare insect, with more than 30 species worldwide. In the Tang Dynasty of China, Roomi Chenli wrote in 'Travels in the Wild Supplement' that he described this type of insect, and it was used as a spring medicine at that time.
The leaf insect and the leaves
Normally, if we don't observe carefully, we can't see the leaf insect clearly. Because it's too much like leaves, it's almost like one with the leaves. The most weird thing is that it eats leaves, it's like it eats more and becomes more like a leaf. Moreover, even if the leaf insect walks, we will think it's a leaf blown by the wind.
Mimic Octopus
The mimic octopus is undoubtedly the 'big brother' of animal transformation. When it comes to transformation and camouflage, it's no one else's second. The mimic octopus has a very soft body, which allows it to switch its shape at will. Not only that, it can also change its color at will, and its speed is extremely fast, it can change its state in less than a second, so it can simulate becoming many other marine animals, such as sea snakes, lionfish, surgeonfish, and even rocks. This powerful transformation ability is simply comparable to the master's seventy-two changes.
The reason the mimic octopus has such extraordinary transformation skills is that there is a cell on its skin containing pigment, the pigment granules are enclosed in a flexible elastic cell, it controls the muscle network to change the shape and size of these cells, so that the transparency or reflectivity changes, which causes color and shape changes. This powerful gene allows the mimic octopus to live in the ocean with ease.
Do you know other animals that transform or camouflage? Or do you want to learn more about these strange animals?
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