Researchers from the University of Geneva in Switzerland have discovered that chameleons, specifically the males, are able to change their colors based on the expansion or contraction of subcutaneous nanocrystals called iridophores that reflect light in different ways.

Chameleons are perhaps the most well-known animals that have the ability to change color, but scientists didn’t know exactly how it was done until now. 

Unlike other creatures that disperse pigments in their skin, the lizards adjust a lattice of tiny guanine crystals found in their iridophore cells just underneath their skin, according to research from the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

Mostly seen in males, the crystals expand and contract depending on the a