BACKGROUND The interdisciplinary field of animal coloration is growing rapidly, spanning
questions about the diverse ways that animals use pigments and structures to generate …

Melanosomes are organelles that produce and store melanin, a widespread biological
pigment with a unique suite of properties including high refractive index, semiconducting …

Animal coloration is one of the most conspicuous aspects of human-perceived organismal
diversity, yet also one of the least understood. In particular, explaining why species have …

Biological communication by means of structural color has existed for at least 500 million
years. Structural color is commonly observed in the animal kingdom, but has been little …

The extraordinary properties of biological materials often result from their sophisticated
hierarchical structures. Through multilevel and cross-scale structural designs, biological …

Throughout their lives animals must complete many tasks, including finding food, avoiding
predators, attracting mates, and navigating through a complex and dynamic environment …

Many animals use vision to detect, discriminate, or recognize important objects such as prey,
predators, homes, or mates. These objects may differ in color and brightness—having …

Melanins are widespread pigments in vertebrates, with important roles in visual signaling,
UV protection, and homeostasis. Fossil evidence of melanin and melanin-bearing …

Animal integumentary coloration plays a crucial role in visual communication and
camouflage, and varies extensively among and within species and populations. To …

It has long been suggested that tropical species are generally more colourful than temperate
species, but whether latitudinal gradients in organismal colourfulness exist remains …