Adaptive body patterning, three-dimensional skin morphology and camouflage measures of the slender filefish Monacanthus tuckeri on a Caribbean coral reef.

ABSTRACT: The slender filefish is a master of adaptive camouflage and can change its appearance within 1-3 seconds. Videos and photographs of this animal's cryptic body patterning and behavior were collected in situ under natural light on a Caribbean coral reef. We present an ethogram of body patterning components that includes large- and small-scale spots, stripes and bars that confer a variety of cryptic patterns amidst a range of complex backgrounds. Field images were analyzed to investigate two aspects of camouflage effectiveness: (i) the degree of color resemblance between animals and their nearby visual stimuli and (ii) the visibility of each fish's actual body outline versus its illusory outline. Most animals more closely matched the color of nearby visual stimuli than that of the surr

SUBMITTER: Allen JJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8932952 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature