Ontogenetic trajectories of body coloration reveal its function as a multicomponent nonsenescent signal.

ABSTRACT: The understanding of developmental patterns of body coloration is challenging because of the multicomponent nature of color signals and the multiple selective pressures acting upon them, which further depend on the sex of the bearer and area of display. Pigmentary colors are thought to be strongly involved in sexual selection, while structural colors are thought to generally associate with conspecifics interactions and improve the discrimination of pigmentary colors. Yet, it remains unclear whether age dependency in each color component is consistent with their potential function. Here, we address lifelong ontogenetic variation in three color components (i.e. UV, pigmentary, and skin background colors) in a birth cohort of common lizards Zootoca vivipara across three ventral body re

SUBMITTER: Bonnaffe W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6308879 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature