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Content with tag animal coloration .

Solar and terrestrial radiations explain continental-scale variation in bird pigmentation

Animals living on the earth's surface are protected from the damaging effects of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation by melanin pigments that color their integument. UV levels that reach the earth's surface vary spatially, but the role of UV exposure in shaping clinal variations in animal pigmentation has never been tested.

Dynamic signalling in the greater flamingo

Colourful plumage is typical of males in species with conventional sex roles, in which females care for offspring and males compete for females, as well as in many monogamous species in which both sexes care for offspring. Reversed sexual dichromatism—more colourful females than males—is predominant in species with sex role reversal. In the latter species, males care for offspring and females compete for mates, the mating system is mainly polyandrous and there is reversed size...

Molecular vibration as a novel explanatory mechanism for the expression of animal colouration

Animal colouration is characterized by the concentration of pigments in integumentary structures and by the nanoscale arrangement of constitutive elements. However, the influence of molecular vibration on colour expression has been overlooked in biology. Molecular vibration occurs in the infrared spectral region, but vibrational and electronic properties can influence each other. Thus, the vibration of pigment molecules may also affect their absorption properties and the resulting colours....

Is It Possible to Infer Life History Traits from the Coloration of Extinct Species?

Paleo-colour scientists have recently made the transition from describing melanin-based colouration in fossil specimens to inferring life-history traits of the species involved. Two such cases correspond to counter-shaded dinosaurs: dark-coloured due to melanins dorsally, and light-coloured ventrally. This review points out that colour reconstruction of fossils based on the shape of preserved microstructures—the majority of paleo-colour studies involve melanin granules—is not...

Red mud as makeup in the Egyptian vultures

It is well-established that plumage colours are important for avian visual communication and are used to signal social information. Yet, little is known about the ability of birds to modify the expression of plumage colours with exogenous materials after feather development, a phenomenon also known as avian cosmetics. The deliberate staining of feathers with red soil in a social signalling context has so far only been described in the Bearded vulture. Here, for the first time feather painting...
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