Coevolution of coloration and colour vision?
(2017) In Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 372(1724).- Abstract
The evolutionary relationship between signals and animal senses has broad significance, with potential consequences for speciation, and for the efficacy and honesty of biological communication. Here we outline current understanding of the diversity of colour vision in two contrasting groups: the phylogenetically conservative birds, and the more variable butterflies. Evidence for coevolution of colour signals and vision exists in both groups, but is limited to observations of phenotypic differences between visual systems, which might be correlated with coloration. Here, to illustrate how one might interpret the evolutionary significance of such differences, we used colour vision modelling based on an avian eye to evaluate the effects of... (More)
The evolutionary relationship between signals and animal senses has broad significance, with potential consequences for speciation, and for the efficacy and honesty of biological communication. Here we outline current understanding of the diversity of colour vision in two contrasting groups: the phylogenetically conservative birds, and the more variable butterflies. Evidence for coevolution of colour signals and vision exists in both groups, but is limited to observations of phenotypic differences between visual systems, which might be correlated with coloration. Here, to illustrate how one might interpret the evolutionary significance of such differences, we used colour vision modelling based on an avian eye to evaluate the effects of variation in three key characters: photoreceptor spectral sensitivity, oil droplet pigmentation and the proportions of different photoreceptor types. The models predict that physiologically realistic changes in any one character will have little effect, but complementary shifts in all three can substantially affect discriminability of three types of natural spectra. These observations about the adaptive landscape of colour vision may help to explain the general conservatism of photoreceptor spectral sensitivities in birds. This approach can be extended to other types of eye and spectra to inform future work on coevolution of coloration and colour vision. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Animal coloration: production, perception, function and application’.
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- author
- Lind, Olle LU ; Henze, Miriam J. LU ; Kelber, Almut LU and Osorio, Daniel
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Adaptive landscape, Bird colour vision, Butterfly colour vision, Coloration, Colour vision, Evolution
- in
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- volume
- 372
- issue
- 1724
- article number
- 20160338
- publisher
- Royal Society Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:28533455
- wos:000401796300005
- scopus:85019636688
- ISSN
- 1471-2970
- DOI
- 10.1098/rstb.2016.0338
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b587c71d-09f9-4d40-9afe-1042a3e03fc3
- date added to LUP
- 2017-06-13 12:00:09
- date last changed
- 2024-09-03 01:09:27
@article{b587c71d-09f9-4d40-9afe-1042a3e03fc3,
abstract = {{<p>The evolutionary relationship between signals and animal senses has broad significance, with potential consequences for speciation, and for the efficacy and honesty of biological communication. Here we outline current understanding of the diversity of colour vision in two contrasting groups: the phylogenetically conservative birds, and the more variable butterflies. Evidence for coevolution of colour signals and vision exists in both groups, but is limited to observations of phenotypic differences between visual systems, which might be correlated with coloration. Here, to illustrate how one might interpret the evolutionary significance of such differences, we used colour vision modelling based on an avian eye to evaluate the effects of variation in three key characters: photoreceptor spectral sensitivity, oil droplet pigmentation and the proportions of different photoreceptor types. The models predict that physiologically realistic changes in any one character will have little effect, but complementary shifts in all three can substantially affect discriminability of three types of natural spectra. These observations about the adaptive landscape of colour vision may help to explain the general conservatism of photoreceptor spectral sensitivities in birds. This approach can be extended to other types of eye and spectra to inform future work on coevolution of coloration and colour vision. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Animal coloration: production, perception, function and application’.</p>}},
author = {{Lind, Olle and Henze, Miriam J. and Kelber, Almut and Osorio, Daniel}},
issn = {{1471-2970}},
keywords = {{Adaptive landscape; Bird colour vision; Butterfly colour vision; Coloration; Colour vision; Evolution}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1724}},
publisher = {{Royal Society Publishing}},
series = {{Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences}},
title = {{Coevolution of coloration and colour vision?}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0338}},
doi = {{10.1098/rstb.2016.0338}},
volume = {{372}},
year = {{2017}},
}