Her research focuses on the function and evolution of animal coloration, particularly colour change and colour polymorphism. She has worked on a wide variety of species in different parts of the world including chameleons in South Africa, gliding lizards in Malaysia and numerous species across Australia. Animal coloration is the general appearance of an animal resulting from the reflection or emission of light from its surfaces.
Some animals are brightly coloured, while others are hard to see. Animal coloration extends beyond visual communication and concealment, playing roles in physiological processes. Thermoregulation is one such function, where an animal's color influences its body temperature.
Nonoptical functions of coloration also include visual functions in which coloration or its pattern affects an animal's own vision. Surfaces near the eye may be darkly coloured, for instance, to reduce reflectance that interferes with vision. Animal coloration plays a key role in understanding animal evolution, particularly with respect to sexual selection.
Studies on avian plumage coloration are classic models for investigating the information content and honesty of biological signals in the context of sexual selection [9]. Now, the diversity and rapid pace of modern animal coloration research make it a particularly exciting interdisciplinary field. This issue provides an entry point to recent developments in the main areas of animal coloration research: colour production, perception, function and evolution, and application.
We present the articles in this order. The interdisciplinary field of animal coloration is growing rapidly, spanning questions about the diverse ways that animals use pigments and structures to generate color, the underlying genetics and epigenetics, the perception of color, how color information is integrated with information from other senses, and general principles underlying color's evolution and function. People working in.
2. Functions of Animal Coloration: The striking array of colors in the animal world is not mere coincidence but rather serves some essential purposes. The following are some mechanisms in which animal pigmentation plays a vital role.
a. Camouflage: Natural camouflage provides various species with protection against predators. Both the diversity of areas encompassing modern animal coloration research and the rapid pace of developments in each make it a particularly exciting interdisciplinary field.
This volume provides an entry point to recent developments in the main areas of animal coloration research: colour production, perception, function and evolution. Biological coloration serves numerous adaptive functions that increase an organism's chances of survival and reproduction. Camouflage, or crypsis, is a widespread strategy where coloration helps an organism blend seamlessly with its environment, making it difficult for predators to detect or for prey to escape.