Squids, octopuses, cuttlefish, amphibians, and chameleon lizards are among the animals that can change the color of their skin in a blink of an eye. They have photoreceptors in their skin that operate independently of their ...
Evolution
Oct 16, 2019
2
3676
Evolution is a tinkerer, not an engineer. "Evolution does not produce novelties from scratch. It works with what already exists," wrote Nobel laureate François Jacob in 1977, and biologists continue to find this to be true.
Molecular & Computational biology
Apr 3, 2020
0
329
Vision is a crucial sense for most animals, and vertebrates have evolved a highly adaptable set of opsin genes that generate light-sensitive pigments to decode the retinal image. These opsins include a rod opsin to help see ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 9, 2020
0
179
An international team of researchers discovered a previously unknown visual system that may allow color vision in deep, dark waters where animals were presumed to be colorblind. The research appears on the cover of the May ...
Plants & Animals
May 9, 2019
2
381
As butterflies flit among flowers, they don't all view blossoms the same way. In a phenomenon called sexually dimorphic vision, females of some butterfly species perceive ultraviolet color while the males see light and dark. ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 10, 2023
0
502
Gathering vision data for hundreds of vertebrates and invertebrates, U of A biologists have deepened scientists' understanding of animal vision, including the colors they see.
Plants & Animals
Jun 6, 2022
0
927
Color vision, consisting of ocular color detection, is achieved with complicated neural mechanisms in the eyes. Researchers from Osaka City University in Japan have found color detection with a simple mechanism in the fish ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 15, 2018
0
136
Exposure to thyroid hormone can alter eye function in zebrafish, a result with implications for curing color blindness and retinal degeneration in humans.
Plants & Animals
Aug 6, 2019
0
171
A variety of animals have male-specific ornament traits and these ornaments are favored by female choice. Which male traits are preferred by females often varies among females. Genetic mechanisms that create and maintain ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 13, 2018
0
53
A few years ago while on a fishing trip in the Florida Keys, biologist Lori Schweikert came face to face with an unusual quick-change act. She reeled in a pointy-snouted reef fish called a hogfish and threw it onboard. But ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 22, 2023
0
103
