Animal colorationAnimal coloration is the general appearance of an animal resulting from the reflection or emission of light from its surfaces. Some animals are brightly coloured, while others are hard to see. In some species, such as the peafowl, the male has strong patterns, conspicuous colours and is iridescent, while the female is far less visible. There are several separate reasons why animals have evolved colours. Camouflage enables an animal to remain hidden from view.
Müllerian mimicryMüllerian mimicry is a type of biological mimicry in which two or more well-defended species, often foul-tasting and sharing common predators, converge in appearance to mimic each other's honest warning signals.
Deimatic behaviourDeimatic behaviour, also known as threat display or startle display, means any pattern of bluffing behaviour in an animal that lacks strong defences, such as suddenly displaying conspicuous eyespots to scare off or momentarily distract a predator, thus giving the prey animal an opportunity to escape. The term deimatic or dymantic originates from the Greek δειματόω (deimatóo), meaning "to frighten".
Batesian mimicryBatesian mimicry is a form of mimicry wherein a harmless species has evolved to imitate the warning signals of a harmful species in order to benefit from these signals' tendency to deter their mutual predators. It is named after the English naturalist Henry Walter Bates, who worked on butterflies in the rainforests of Brazil.
Edward Bagnall PoultonSir Edward Bagnall Poulton, FRSHFRSEFLS (27 January 1856 – 20 November 1943) was a British evolutionary biologist, a lifelong advocate of natural selection through a period in which many scientists such as Reginald Punnett doubted its importance. He invented the term sympatric for evolution of species in the same place, and in his book The Colours of Animals (1890) was the first to recognise frequency-dependent selection.
Signalling theoryTheory in evolutionary biologyBy stotting (also called pronking), a springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) signals honestly to predators that it is young, fit, and not worth chasing.Within evolutionary biology, signalling theory is a body of theoretical work examining communication between individuals, both within species and across species.
PredationBiological interactionSolitary predator: a polar bear feeds on a bearded seal it has killed.Social predators: meat ants cooperate to feed on a cicada far larger than themselves.Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey.
Advertising in biologyAdvertising in biology means the use of displays by organisms such as animals and plants to signal their presence for some evolutionary reason. Such signalling may be honest, used to attract other organisms, as when flowers use bright colours, patterns, and scent to attract pollinators such as bees; or, again honestly, to warn off other organisms, as when distasteful animals use warning coloration to prevent attacks from potential predators.
Sexual selectionSexual selection is a mechanism of evolution in which members of one sexchoose mates of the other sex (intersexual selection) to mate with, and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex (intrasexual selection). These two forms of selection mean that some individuals have greater reproductive success than others within a population, for example because they are more attractive or prefer more attractive partners to produce offspring.
Alfred Russel WallaceAlfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was an English naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and illustrator. He independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection; his 1858 paper on the subject was published that year alongside extracts from Charles Darwin's writings on the topic.
VenomVenom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered to other animals through a wound by means of a bite, sting or similar penetrative action, usually via a specially evolved venom apparatus, such as fangs or a stinger, in a process called envenomation.
PerceptionInterpretation of sensory information The Necker cube and Rubin vase can be perceived in more than one way. Humans are able to make a very good guess on the underlying 3D shape category/identity/geometry given a silhouette of that shape. Computer vision researchers have been able to build computational models for perception that exhibit a similar behavior and are capable of generating and reconstructing 3D shapes from single or multi-view depth maps or silhouettes.
SoundDrum cadences performed by the United States Navy BandProblems playing this file? See .Sound is a phenomenon in which pressure disturbances propagate through an elasticmaterialmedium. In the context of physics, it is characterised as a mechanical wave of pressure or related quantities (e.g. displacement), whereas in physiological-psychological contexts it implies a hearing process.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.