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Ontogenetic color change in the tail of blue‐tailed skinks (Plestodion elegans)
Ontogenetic color change in animals is an interesting evolution‐related phenomenon that has been studied by evolutionary biologists for decades. However, obtaining quantitative and continuous color measurements throughout the life cycle of animals is a challenge. To understand the rhythm of change i...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10242887/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37287854 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10152 |
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author | Yang, Chen Chen, Siheng Wang, Jie |
author_facet | Yang, Chen Chen, Siheng Wang, Jie |
author_sort | Yang, Chen |
collection | PubMed |
description | Ontogenetic color change in animals is an interesting evolution‐related phenomenon that has been studied by evolutionary biologists for decades. However, obtaining quantitative and continuous color measurements throughout the life cycle of animals is a challenge. To understand the rhythm of change in tail color and sexual dichromatism, we used a spectrometer to measure the tail color of blue‐tailed skink (Plestiodon elegans) from birth to sexual maturity. Lab color space was selected due to its simplicity, fastness, and accuracy and depends on the visual sense of the observer for measuring the tail color of skinks. A strong relationship was observed between color indexes (values of L*, a*, b*) and growth time of skink. The luminance of tail color decreased from juveniles to adults in both sexes. Moreover, we observed differences in color rhythms between the sexes, which may be influenced by different behavioral strategies used by them. This study provides continuous measurements of change in tail color in skinks from juveniles to adults and offers insights into their sex‐based differences. While this study does not provide direct evidence to explain the potential factors that drive dichromatism between the sexes of lizards, our finding could serve as a reference for future studies exploring possible mechanisms of ontogenetic color change in reptiles. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10242887 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-102428872023-06-07 Ontogenetic color change in the tail of blue‐tailed skinks (Plestodion elegans) Yang, Chen Chen, Siheng Wang, Jie Ecol Evol Research Articles Ontogenetic color change in animals is an interesting evolution‐related phenomenon that has been studied by evolutionary biologists for decades. However, obtaining quantitative and continuous color measurements throughout the life cycle of animals is a challenge. To understand the rhythm of change in tail color and sexual dichromatism, we used a spectrometer to measure the tail color of blue‐tailed skink (Plestiodon elegans) from birth to sexual maturity. Lab color space was selected due to its simplicity, fastness, and accuracy and depends on the visual sense of the observer for measuring the tail color of skinks. A strong relationship was observed between color indexes (values of L*, a*, b*) and growth time of skink. The luminance of tail color decreased from juveniles to adults in both sexes. Moreover, we observed differences in color rhythms between the sexes, which may be influenced by different behavioral strategies used by them. This study provides continuous measurements of change in tail color in skinks from juveniles to adults and offers insights into their sex‐based differences. While this study does not provide direct evidence to explain the potential factors that drive dichromatism between the sexes of lizards, our finding could serve as a reference for future studies exploring possible mechanisms of ontogenetic color change in reptiles. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2023-06-06 /pmc/articles/PMC10242887/ /pubmed/37287854 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10152 Text en © 2023 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Articles Yang, Chen Chen, Siheng Wang, Jie Ontogenetic color change in the tail of blue‐tailed skinks (Plestodion elegans) |
title | Ontogenetic color change in the tail of blue‐tailed skinks (Plestodion elegans) |
title_full | Ontogenetic color change in the tail of blue‐tailed skinks (Plestodion elegans) |
title_fullStr | Ontogenetic color change in the tail of blue‐tailed skinks (Plestodion elegans) |
title_full_unstemmed | Ontogenetic color change in the tail of blue‐tailed skinks (Plestodion elegans) |
title_short | Ontogenetic color change in the tail of blue‐tailed skinks (Plestodion elegans) |
title_sort | ontogenetic color change in the tail of blue‐tailed skinks (plestodion elegans) |
topic | Research Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10242887/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37287854 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.10152 |
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