Author:
Liedtke H. Christoph,Lopez-Hervas Karem,Galván Ismael,Polo-Cavia Nuria,Gomez-Mestre Ivan
Abstract
AbstractFacultative colour change is widespread in the animal kingdom, and has been documented in many distantly related amphibians. However, experimental data testing the extent of facultative colour change, and associated physiological and morphological implications are comparatively scarce. Background matching in the face of spatial and temporal environmental variation is thought to be an important proximate function of colour change in aquatic amphibian larvae. This is particularly relevant for species with long larval periods such as the western spadefoot toad, Pelobates cultripes, whose tadpoles spend up to six months developing in temporary waterbodies with temporally variable vegetation. By rearing tadpoles on different coloured backgrounds, we show that P. cultripes larvae can regulate pigmentation to track fine-grained differences in background brightness, but not hue or saturation. We found that colour change is rapid, reversible, and primarily achieved through changes in the quantity of eumelanin in the skin. We show that this increased eumelanin production and/or maintenance is also correlated with changes in morphology and oxidative stress, with more pigmented tadpoles growing larger tail fins and having an improved redox status.
Funder
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference88 articles.
1. Merilaita, S. & Stevens, M. Animal Camouflage 17–33 (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
2. Stuart Fox, D. & Moussalli, A. Camouflage, communication and thermoregulation: Lessons from colour changing organisms. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 364, 463–470 (2009).
3. Merilaita, S., Scott-Samuel, N. E. & Cuthill, I. C. How camouflage works. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 372, 20160341 (2017).
4. Kats, L. B. & van Dragt, R. G. Background color-matching in the spring peeper, Hyla crucifer. Copeia 1, 109–115 (1986).
5. Camacho, C., Sanabria-Fernández, A., Baños-Villalba, A. & Edelaar, P. Experimental evidence that matching habitat choice drives local adaptation in a wild population. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 287, 20200721 (2020).
Cited by
2 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献