Physiol. Also -phor. [f. CHROMATO- + Gr. -φορος bearing, bearer.] A pigment-cell, possessing contractile processes, contained in the skin of many animals. Esp. applied to those of the Cephalopoda, which by their contraction and change of shape cause a change of color in the skin.
1864. Webster cites Dana.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, Introd. p. lxxxix. [In Cephalopoda], The tegumentary system is distinguished … by the presence of chromatophores.
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., xii. 488. We may find (e.g. in the Chameleon) cutaneous structures termed chromatophores, which are little sacs containing pigment of various colours, and each with an aperture which, when open, allows the colour contained to appear.
1881. Mivart, in Nature, No. 615. 336. In trout which are kept alive in dark places, the black chromatophores are expanded, and consequently such specimens are very dark-coloured.
Hence Chromatophorous a., bearing chromatophores.
1881. in Syd. Soc. Lex.
