Coloration Flashcards
What’s Industrial Melanism?
Industrial Melanism is an evolution
in coloration caused by a change in
the environment.
What’s Camouflage?
Adaptation of having coloration that blends into ones surroundings.
Prevents you from being munched on.
What’s Cryptic Coloration?
It’s a form of Camouflage that allows the animal to easily blend with the surroundings (shape and/or color).
EX: Praying Mantis.
What’s Countershading?
A type of camouflage in which the top (dorsal) side of an organism is darker than the bottom (ventral) side.
Reduces shadow effects.
EX: Grey Squirrel, Emperor Penguins.
What’s Warning coloration?
It is a display of usually bright, vivid colors meant to warn prey that if eaten, may cause sickness or poisoning or it just won’t taste good.
EX: Yellow Jacket Wasps, Striped Skunk, Nudibranch, Foaming Grasshopper.
What’s a Mimicry?
It’s a deceptive form of camouflage.
Works because the organism that isn’t harmless steal the pattern from the one that is in order to ward of predators.
They call the regular one the Mimic and the original ‘harmful’ one the model.
EX: Viceroy mimics Monarch Butterfly, King snake mimics Coral Snake.
What’s Display Coloration?
LOOKS LIKE: whatever is attractive to the particular species.
Usually to attract Mates.
Examples of Display Coloration?
Caribbean Flamingos, Ruby Throated Hummingbird.
What’s Morphological Adaptation?
involve the
structure of an organism.
EX: Beaks for Birds, large eyes for nocturnal creatures etc.
What are Physiological Adaptations?
Involved with the functions of an
organism.
EX: Being able to digest a certain food, having different enzymes, tolerance to salt etc.
Behavioral Adaptations?
These involve an organisms reaction
to its environment.
EX: Migration, storing food, breeding times.
Example of Geographic Isolation?
Galpagos/Darwin’s Finches.
The original finches were separated
onto the various islands when they
formed, and because of distance,
were kept apart.
