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IN a new research, scientists have determined that turtles are similar to chameleons, in the sense that their skin and shells often match the colour of their habitat’s substrate, which may help them deceive predators and prey alike. According to a report in Natural History magazine, for the research, John W. Rowe, of Alma College in Michigan, and three colleagues collected gravid female midland painted turtles and red-eared sliders from the wild, brought them to the lab, and injected them with oxytocin, a hormone that induces egg laying. They assigned the hatchlings to two control groups, which they kept for 160 days on either a white or a black substrate, and to two "reversal" groups, which they kept for 80 days on white or black and then switched to a substrate of the opposite colour for another 80 days. By day 80, all the
turtles had lightened or darkened, approaching the colour of the
substrates they were living on. By day 160, the controls were staying
the course, but both reversal groups had switched and were now well on
their way to the color intensity of their new substrate, confirming
that turtles can completely reverse melanisation. That puts freshwater
turtles in the same league as chameleons and squids. —
ANI
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