Octopuses are masters of camouflage, changing the colors, textures and patterns of their skin in order to blend into their environment and communicate with each other, a skill that makes them not only the envy of, but also the inpiration for army engineers attempting to design cloaking devices.

As if that wasn't cool enough, new research published today in the Journal of Experimental Biology indicates that the skin of an octopus contains the pigment proteins normally found in eyes, making it responsive to light, according to The Guardian.

According to The New York Times, octopuses are believed to be reliant predominantly on their vision in order to change color. In spite of being colour blind, these cephalopods make use of their eyes to sense the colors in their surroundings, then relaxing or contracting their chromatophores (tiny bags filled with colored chemicals) suitably. Chromatophores take on any one of three basic pattern templates in order to camouflage them. All of this takes place within one third of a second. Experiments conducted in the 1960's proved that chromatophores react to light, implying that they can be controlled without feedback from the brain.

Biologists from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Desmond Ramirez and Todd Oakley took several skin samples from a species of Octopus known as the "California two-spot" octopus and placed each sample on a petri dish using insect pins. With the help of light emitting diodes, they then shined lights of different wavelengths onto the samples. The pair found that the chromatophores expanded rapidly and remained expanded, pulsating rhythmically, when exposed to continuous bright white light. In contrast, red light caused the muscles to contract rhythmically, but did not expand the chromatophores.

Octopuses aren't the only species that can see using their skin. There are several other species known to have skin that contains opsins and is sensitive to light. However, this study presents the first clear evidence that octopus skin is also sensitive to light, and is also indicative of a possible process by which chromatophores sense and react to it.