This is scientific American 60 second science. I'm Dean of Fine Merrin. Got a minute?

The octopus is a master of disguise. It can change its appearance to blend in with its environment or to warn predators to back off.

This talent is due to pigment cells called chromatophores in octopus skin.

Muscle contraction expands the chromatophores and helps them change the skin color to match its surroundings.

But first, the creature has to sense those surroundings.

Not surprisingly, information about the colors and the environment comes in through the eyes.

But new research reveals that for one octopus species at least,

the skin itself can sense light and react, with no input from the eyes or brain.

Researchers from the University of California,

Santa Barbara worked with skin removed

from the California two spot octopus.

Not only did the skin respond to bright light, but the scientists found that the skin possesses the same family of light sensitive proteins, called opsons, typically found in its eyes, which implies that in the course of evolutionary history, the same molecular

mechanisms that the eyes employ for light detection got co-opted for use in the skin.

The study is in the journal of experimental biology.

Octopus and tegment was quickest to respond to blue light,

which is the color best suited to travel foreign water.

Study author Todd Oakley said via email of the skin's capacity that quote

we hypothesize the light response as some role in communication and camouflage.

The exact nature of that role remains unclear, but this evidence for light-sensing

skin brightens up our understanding of how octopuses so effortlessly go incognito.

Thanks for the minute.

For Scientific American 60 Second Science, I'm Dina Fine Merrick.

...