This two-foot-long lizard lives in the more arid parts of Australia.
"They can change color really quickly, just in a matter of seconds or minutes."
University of Melbourne biologist Katie Smith.
"And they do this by moving pigments within specialized skin cells called chromatophores."
Bearded dragons modify their colors for camouflage, or to maintain their body temperature, or to communicate with other dragons. Smith wanted to know how they meet all those needs with the same tool kit.
So she and her team rounded up twelve bearded dragons and put them through a series of tests before releasing them back into the wild. They found that when the dragons want to communicate with other members of their species, they change the colors on their neck.
"This is actually one of the reasons they're called bearded dragons—because they look like they have a really serious five o'clock shadow."
Changes to their backs were for temperature regulation. Shifting to yellow lets them to cool off during extreme heat, while darker greys allow them to soak up more heat during cooler weather.
"They actually save about, on average, 22 minutes a day at the darker colors than the lighter colors. That's about 85 hours throughout the whole year."
Eighty-five hours a year NOT spent out in the open and exposed to potential predators. The results were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society: B.
The lizards can clearly control each part of their body separately, resulting in an efficient system. Temperature regulation involves the back, which is facing the sun. Social signaling uses the neck, easily visible to another lizard they're faced off with.
The researchers' next task is to see what happens when the lizards have to deal with simultaneous but conflicting coloration requirements—situations that could give a bearded dragon a close shave.
很多动物会进化颜色让自己隐藏起来 。美洲豹身上的斑纹让它可以在阳光斑驳的雨林地带潜行 。一些动物翅膀上的斑驳沉着色素可以让它们在树上休息时不被打扰 。另外，还有些动物可以快速改变它们的外表，比如鬃狮蜥 。
这种两英尺长的蜥蜴生活在澳大利亚的干旱地区 。
“它们可以非常快速地改变颜色，仅仅只需要几秒钟或者几分钟的时间 。”
凯蒂·史密斯是墨尔本大学的生物学家 。
“它们通过转移特定皮肤内细胞内的色素来实现的 。”
鬃狮蜥通过改变自己的颜色进行伪装、保持体温，或和其他鬃狮蜥进行交流 。史密斯想知道拥有同样保护伪装的鬃狮蜥是如何满足这些需求的 。
所以，她和自己的团队找了十二只鬃狮蜥，对它们进行了一系列的测试，然后再把它们放回野外 。他们发现，当鬃狮蜥想和本物种的其他成员进行交流时，它们会改变自己颈部的颜色 。

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