Color-changing hogfish use their skin to ‘see’ themselves — even after they’re dead

Hogfish are the chameleons of the Atlantic Ocean, seamlessly altering their pores and skin coloration relying on their atmosphere. As if these morphing expertise weren’t spectacular sufficient, these reef dwellers may also “see” with their pores and skin with the assistance of particular light-sensing cells, even after they die, in response to a research revealed Tuesday (Aug. 22) within the journal Nature Communications.

Lorian Schweikert, an assistant professor within the Division of Biology and Marine Biology on the College of North Carolina Wilmington in addition to an avid angler, witnessed this color-shifting phenomenon firsthand throughout a fishing expedition in Florida, when she watched a hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus) she caught change its pores and skin coloration to match the patterned white deck of the boat.