Thursday, November 4, 2010

Why the Leopard Got Its Spots

A new study shows why leopards and other big cats are spotted, striped or melanistic — all black. In short, big cats' patterning and pattern attributes evolved in relation to their ecology and behaviors. This is evolution in action: if you stand out by color or texture you get eaten and your species becomes extinct. Blend in and you thrive.

Proc. R. Soc. London Ser. B 10.1098/rspb.2010.1734 (2010).

3 comments:

  1. Here is my favorite article on the reaction-diffusion which leads to the patterning: http://www-lmr.usc.edu/~pal/cs5xx/Murray.pdf

    Murray, J. D. Scient. Am. 258, 80−87 (1988).

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  2. The seminal paper on chemical morphogenesis by Alan Turing (1952).

    And not just leopards, according to Wolfram (1983, 2002).

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  3. Not leopards but the gene (Agouti) governing color patterns in mice has been determined.

    They showed that small changes in the activity of a single pigmentation gene in embryos can generate big differences in adult color pattern.

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