From http://www.bioteams.com/chameleon_525.jpg
Chameleons are able to change color with their surroundings. Mostly it's green and brown (to blend in with leaves/sticks) but they can change into a variety of colors. Once when I saw a photo of a chameleon in a glass cage, and the cage still had a sticker of the bar code on it. The chameleon had changed to green, brown, and blue to match where he was in the cage, but changed the top of his head white to match the sticker on the glass he was next to.
Chameleons are able to change color because the have special skin cells under their skin called "chromatophores." The top layer of those cells have red or yellow pigment and the lower layers blue or white. The chameleon consciously changes color, and the colors mix by the pigment cells growing larger or smaller. The changes in color also help with the temperature of the chameleon. Darker skin absorbs more heat from the sun when it is cold, and lighter skin will reflect it when it is hot out.
Kind of like billboards, where there are other colors mixed in with what you see as a solid color. Even in nature, primary colors are mixed to make different ones. The basic rules we have been learning by painting in class are used in nature.
Proof? http://www.yesmag.ca/Questions/Chameleon.html
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