Every now and then, each of us might wish we had an invisibility cloak or some mechanism by which we could simply conceal ourselves, become instantly inconspicuous. After all, some animals, such as the octopus Japetella heathi and the squid Onychoteuthis banksii, have that ability, switching between transparency and pigmentation to render themselves imperceptible in the deep ocean. Just how they do this remained a mystery until recently, when scientists at Duke University discovered that the switch was related to light reflectance, with the camouflage reflecting the least amount of light and thereby providing a mechanism to escape visual detection being the cloak of choice.

Beginning around depths of 2,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, the sun’s rays fade into darkness. In this shadowy world, predators have acquired an abundance of strange adaptations, such as light organs projecting from their heads and eyes positioned upward to allow for easy visual detection of prey. Hence, for species like J. heathi and O. banksii, which are prey to such predators, the ability to switch between different types of camouflage is more than simply a neat trick, it is a survival strategy.

Both cephalopods have dynamic ranges that extend across depth gradients transitioning between light and dark environments. For example, J. heathi, which measures about three inches in length, is found at depths ranging from 1,300 to 2,600 feet, and O. banksii, which is about five inches long, occurs at depths ranging from 650 to 13,000 feet.

To understand how the species evade predators that occur along the depth gradients, the researchers performed a series of experiments comparing the effects of different types of light on transparency and pigmentation. Under ambient light, meant to represent downwelling light in the ocean, the two species existed in their transparent states. When exposed to a beam of blue light, meant to mimic the bioluminescent searchlights of predators, both species displayed a rapid chromatophore reaction, becoming dark almost instantaneously.

The researchers next used a spectrometer and reflectance probe to measure the amount of light reflected from J. heathi in its transparent and pigmented modes when exposed to light of wavelengths representing those of bioluminescent light from predators. The team found that J. heathi reflected twice as much light in the transparent state than in the pigmented state, indicating that when transparent, the cephalopod would be visible to predators using bioluminescent searchlights. However, at shallower depths, against a light background created by downwelling sunlight, pigmentation would make J. heathi visible to predators swimming below. Therefore, in light environments the cephalopod exists in a transparent mode, whereas under dark conditions, it takes on a dark coloration that conceals it from bioluminescence.

J. heathi and O. banksii appear to have remarkable control over their cloaking response to light. For example, J. heathi did not respond uniformly to tactile stimulation, passing objects, or overhead shadows, suggesting that chromatophore activation and pigmentation is triggered only in response to specific factors. Such specificity could mean that, in the process of camouflaging itself from one type of predator, J. heathi may risk exposing itself to other predators.

As the cephalopod study and recent investigations into retroreflective materials indicate, scientists' understanding of optical camouflage mechanisms is advancing rapidly. And as a result, the concept of the invisibility cloak, long employed as a convenient method of concealment in science fiction and fantasy, is not so far-fetched as it once seemed.
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Kara Rogers is a freelance science writer and senior editor of biomedical sciences at Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and author of Science Up Front on the Britannica Blog. She holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology/Toxicology, but enjoys reading and writing about all things science. You can follow her on Twitter at @karaerogers.

This post also appears on the Britannica Blog.