The biology of color

doi:10.1126/science.aan0221

Review

. 2017 Aug 4;357(6350):eaan0221.

doi: 10.1126/science.aan0221.

The biology of color

Innes C Cuthill¹, William L Allen², Kevin Arbuckle², Barbara Caspers³, George Chaplin⁴, Mark E Hauber^{5

6}, Geoffrey E Hill⁷, Nina G Jablonski⁴, Chris D Jiggins⁸, Almut Kelber⁹, Johanna Mappes¹⁰, Justin Marshall¹¹, Richard Merrill¹², Daniel Osorio¹³, Richard Prum¹⁴, Nicholas W Roberts¹, Alexandre Roulin¹⁵, Hannah M Rowland^{8

16}, Thomas N Sherratt¹⁷, John Skelhorn¹⁸, Michael P Speed¹⁹, Martin Stevens²⁰, Mary Caswell Stoddard²¹, Devi Stuart-Fox²², Laszlo Talas¹, Elizabeth Tibbetts²³, Tim Caro²⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
² Department of Biosciences, Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK.
³ Department of Animal Behaviour, University of Bielefeld, Post Office Box 100131, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany.
⁴ Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Hunter College and Graduate Center of City University of New York, New York, NY 10065, USA.
⁶ Department of Animal Biology, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
⁷ Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.
⁸ Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3DT, UK.
⁹ Department of Biology, Lund University, 22362 Lund, Sweden.
¹⁰ Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions Research, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä 40014, Finland.
¹¹ Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
¹² Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany.
¹³ School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK.
¹⁴ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
¹⁶ Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regents Park, London NW1 4RY, UK.
¹⁷ Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada.
¹⁸ Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4HH, UK.
¹⁹ Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZX, UK.
²⁰ Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE, UK.
²¹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
²² School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
²³ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
²⁴ Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. tmcaro@ucdavis.edu.

PMID: 28774901
DOI: 10.1126/science.aan0221

Review

The biology of color

Innes C Cuthill et al. Science. 2017.

. 2017 Aug 4;357(6350):eaan0221.

doi: 10.1126/science.aan0221.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK.
² Department of Biosciences, Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK.
³ Department of Animal Behaviour, University of Bielefeld, Post Office Box 100131, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany.
⁴ Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
⁵ Department of Psychology, Hunter College and Graduate Center of City University of New York, New York, NY 10065, USA.
⁶ Department of Animal Biology, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
⁷ Department of Biological Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA.
⁸ Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3DT, UK.
⁹ Department of Biology, Lund University, 22362 Lund, Sweden.
¹⁰ Centre of Excellence in Biological Interactions Research, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä 40014, Finland.
¹¹ Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia.
¹² Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany.
¹³ School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK.
¹⁴ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
¹⁶ Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regents Park, London NW1 4RY, UK.
¹⁷ Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada.
¹⁸ Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle NE2 4HH, UK.
¹⁹ Institute of Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZX, UK.
²⁰ Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9FE, UK.
²¹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
²² School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
²³ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
²⁴ Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and Center for Population Biology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. tmcaro@ucdavis.edu.

PMID: 28774901
DOI: 10.1126/science.aan0221

Abstract

Coloration mediates the relationship between an organism and its environment in important ways, including social signaling, antipredator defenses, parasitic exploitation, thermoregulation, and protection from ultraviolet light, microbes, and abrasion. Methodological breakthroughs are accelerating knowledge of the processes underlying both the production of animal coloration and its perception, experiments are advancing understanding of mechanism and function, and measurements of color collected noninvasively and at a global scale are opening windows to evolutionary dynamics more generally. Here we provide a roadmap of these advances and identify hitherto unrecognized challenges for this multi- and interdisciplinary field.

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