Carotenoids are plant pigments that function as antioxidants, hormone precursors,
colourants and essential components of the photosynthetic apparatus. Carotenoids …

Colour patches are complex traits, the components of which may evolve independently
through a variety of mechanisms. Although usually treated as simple, two-dimensional …

One hypothesis for why females in many animal species frequently prefer to mate with the
most elaborately ornamented males predicts that availability of carotenoid pigments is a …

The first comprehensive review of all aspects of the biology of moult, drawing information
from across the literature and in all birds, from penguins to passerines. Feathers are …

All melanin-colored ornaments contain a mixture of the two types of melanin, eumelanin and
pheomelanin. The reflectance spectrum of the ornament is, in part, a function of the ratio of …

Feathers tend to be darkly colored in habitats where relative humidity is high and pale where
it is low. We suggest that this correlation, known as Gloger's rule, results, in part, from …

Red coloration is a salient feature of the natural world. Many vertebrates produce red color
by converting dietary yellow carotenoids into red ketocarotenoids via an unknown …

The bright colours of feathers are among the most striking displays in nature and are
frequently used as sexual signals. Feathers can be coloured by pigments or by ordered …

Carotenoids are diverse groups of colorful pigments, which are synthesized in plants, algae,
bacteria, and some yeast. They play a pivotal role in photosynthesis, photoprotection, and …

Trade-offs in resource allocation have been widely stated as the means by which the
honesty of ornamental traits is maintained, but an alternative to this resource trade-off …