Identification of Shell Colour Pigments in Marine Snails Clanculus pharaonius and C. margaritarius (Trochoidea; Gastropoda).

ABSTRACT: Colour and pattern are key traits with important roles in camouflage, warning and attraction. Ideally, in order to begin to understand the evolution and ecology of colour in nature, it is important to identify and, where possible, fully characterise pigments using biochemical methods. The phylum Mollusca includes some of the most beautiful exemplars of biological pigmentation, with the vivid colours of sea shells particularly prized by collectors and scientists alike. Biochemical studies of molluscan shell colour were fairly common in the last century, but few of these studies have been confirmed using modern methods and very few shell pigments have been fully characterised. Here, we use modern chemical and multi-modal spectroscopic techniques to identify two porphyrin pigments and eumelan

SUBMITTER: Williams ST 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4930200 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature