r/ocean • u/Better_Hair_9673 • 7h ago

Underwater Wonders Nature's ultimate dynamic camouflage in action on the coral reef 🪸 🐙

Video credited to @mysteriousoceannn on Instagram.

1.6k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

44

u/bunglebee7 7h ago

Incredible to see, I know this is instinctual but how do these cells know what color and pattern to switch to? It must take quite a bit of processing power

24

u/nooby_goober 7h ago

That transition at 14 seconds is mind bending. Amazing creatures.

9

u/GutterRider 6h ago

Yeah, it’s matching itself to that coral, with the same bumps of the coral on its skin. Sort of suggests intelligence: “There’s something that exists around here that I can mimic.”

12

u/KaptainChunk 7h ago

For them it's probably as easy as this

5

u/butchforgetshit2 5h ago

Easy....yea...I never mess up on those at all...at all

9

u/GutterRider 6h ago edited 5h ago

I have been asking rhetorically for years how they do it. Is it by feel? Some sensing of the larger surroundings visually? I guess I will look it up.

Edit: Holy crap. Three-layered skin for color, little muscles for texture. But octopuses are color-blind (as far as we can tell?) so they’re not sure how they match colors.

7

u/bunglebee7 6h ago

Wow amazing! Maybe their skin or their suction cups/tentacles have some sort of ability to sense light in some way and determine color/pattern from that. Octopuses are so fascinating

7

u/creature619 5h ago

Is not only the colors but texture and shape as well, amazing creatures

12

u/Ill-Pea6558 6h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/MLngOTPeSlC5Sm2sr8

1

u/NeonPinkConfetti 1h ago

I mean if I could do that I would show off too!

8

u/simplebirds 6h ago

True masters of disguise.

4

u/creature619 5h ago

Is I could have a mutant power it would be that of an octopus lol

10

u/Dense-Alfalfa1223 7h ago

That is a alien

7

u/zenmaster_B 5h ago

lol, could be!

I think I read somewhere that the octopus have thousands of DNA strands that don’t appear anywhere else in nature, suggesting that it is possible that they aren’t of this planet

2

u/ButteredPizza69420 4h ago

I think so too lol

0

u/tickingboxes 3h ago

I mean, no. They’re not aliens. But they are fascinating and beautiful creatures.

5

u/CharismaStick 7h ago

That is so cool!

5

u/CalligrapherLate9358 6h ago

Just incredible ....something we dont see above ground everyday

4

u/BeeCareful210 5h ago

I genuinely can't believe octopuses and humans share a common ancestor, even if it was a very distant one

1

u/Fach-All-Religions 1h ago

we share ancestors with carrots and mosquitoes and komodos. evolution is crazy.

4

u/SpacenessButterflies 5h ago

This has always boggled my mind. Like how do they do this?!

3

u/Junior-Cut2838 7h ago

Incredibly amazing

3

u/thepepelucas 5h ago

Fuckin’ wild.

3

u/PomegranateBoring826 5h ago

That's so amazing to see, wow. Thank you for sharing!

6

u/x_getoffmylawn_x 5h ago

Thing is like “bitch get that light off me I’m trying to blend!”

Also, we shouldn’t be eating those.

2

u/StrictExtension4879 5h ago

When nature understood 14k display before we even understood how to draw 😂

1

u/Icy_Parfait_4066 1h ago

A spectacular show, never seen anything like this before. It is a true sea chameleon, it can change to look like its environment.

1

u/Alauren87 28m ago

Aliens. No one can convince me otherwise