Camouflage the peacock flounder, squid and octopus actively change their skin patterns and colours using special chromatophore cells to resemble their current background, or, as in most chameleons, for signalling. However, Smith's dwarf chameleon does use active colour change for camouflage. Each chromatophore contains pigment of only one colour. In fish and frogs, colour change is mediated by the type of chromatophores known as melanophores that contain dark pigment. A melanophore is star-shaped; it contains many small pigmented organelles which can be dispersed throughout the cell, or aggregated near its centre. When the pigmented organelles are dispersed, the cell makes a
Aircraft camouflage were also painted in the same colour. At the same time, disruptive schemes using several colours were also tried out. By mid-1916 a silver-grey aluminium dope became the norm for Nieuports until the French introduced a standardized disruptive camouflage scheme for combat aircraft in 1917. This was used widely on such aircraft as the Breguet XIV and SPAD XIII that consisted of dark and light green, dark and light brown, black (sometimes omitted) and an underside of grey or beige. In mid-1916, the Germans experimented with a transparent cellon covering on several aircraft, including a Fokker E.III, that rendered the