In the marvelous time-lapse video below, a female Labord's chameleon (Furcifer labordi) is seen displaying a psychedelic explosion of colors in the hours just before her death.
"In her last moments, her skin erupts with color, as if uttering her last words," says narrator Bumper Robinson.
Scientists documented the phenomena, never seen before in the wild, for new PBS series titled "Big Little Journeys." As LiveScience explains, "chameleons' skin changes color by expanding and contracting special cells that contain nanocrystals — a process that alters how they reflect light. In the clip, the chameleon's skin twinkles and changes color like a fireworks display."
"During death, nervous signals continue to transmit and to change the shape of the skin cells, creating the chaotic technicolor patterns that were captured," series producer Valeria Fabbri-Kennedy and American Museum of Natural History herpetologist Chris Raxworthy say.
