Not As Clear As It May Appear: Challenges Associated with Transparent Camouflage in the Ocean

The “superpower” of invisibility is a reality and a necessity for many animals that live in featureless environments like the open ocean, where there is nowhere to hide. How do animals achieve invisibility? Many animals match their color patterns to their background, but this strategy is limited when the background scene is dynamic. Transparency allows organisms to match any background all the time. However, it is challenging for an organism to maintain transparency across its entire body volume. To be transparent, tissues must minimize light scattering, both at the surface and within. Until recently, it has been unclear how clear animals with complex bodies (such as many crustaceans with hard cuticles, thick muscles, and other internal organs) minimize such light scattering. This is especially challenging in an environment where light can come from many directions: reflections from downwelling sunlight and bioluminescent searchlights from predators. This review summarizes several recent discoveries of multiple unique adaptations for minimizing light scattering both on the exterior cuticle surface and throughout the body volume of transparent crustaceans, as well as the potential tradeoffs and challenges associated with transparent camouflage.