When you think of flounder, you probably don’t get too excited; it’s just a strange-looking flat fish, right? The peacock flounder, sometimes known as the flowery flounder, bucks boring tradition. It lives in the tropical Indo-Pacific area, typically in shallow waters. Because its habitat is highly variable—rocks, coral, sand—it developed the ability to change colors in only eight seconds. Each of those four photos? Those are the same individual fish. CC BY 2.5Brocken Inaglory/WikipediaColor changing isn’t quite as common in insects as it is in, say, cephalopods, but some still have mastered the form. The crab spider, which lives throughout the arctic and subarctic world, is an active hunter, scampering from flower to flower to find prey. Unfortunately, not all flowers are the same color; where this guy, the goldenrod crab spider, lives, it likes to hang out on white and yellow flowers. Unlike the other animals on this list, the crab spider actually secretes a yellow pigment onto its outside, effectively painting itself. Or it can hide that yellow pigment, becoming more white. CC BY-SA 3.0
