How could a colorblind animal know how to change its skin color
to blend into its surroundings? And what will the animal's
predator "see," looking at its prey before and after it hides?
These provocative questions are addressed in article published
today by a collaborative team from the Marine Biological
Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Mass., and the U.S. Military
Academy in West Point, N.Y. The article, "Hyperspectral imaging
of cuttlefish camouflage indicates good color match in the eyes
of fish predators," appears in Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "What makes camouflage effective?
The answer is that it's an opinion, and that opinion completely
depends on who is being asked. Our work presented in this paper
takes the field a step closer to quantifying camouflage
effectiveness," says J. Kenneth Wickiser, Asst. Prof. in the
Department of Chemistry and Life Science at the U.S. Military
Academy in West Point. Understanding the principles of
camouflage is not only important in biology, b