The Quanta Podcast When Did Nature Burst Into Vivid Color?
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Jul 15, 2025 Join Molly Herring, a contributing writer for Quanta Magazine who specializes in evolution and marine biology, as she dives into the colorful world of nature. They discuss the vibrant uses of color by animals, from attracting mates to signaling danger. Delving into the complexities of phylogenetic trees, Molly explains how traits can reappear across species and reveals intriguing examples like human and octopus eye evolution. Plus, discover the unique communication tactics of mantis shrimp, whose sound-making abilities rival those of elephants.
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Diversity of Color Vision in Animals
- Color vision varies widely across species, from humans with 3 cone types to mantis shrimp with 12 photoreceptors.
- Some animals see UV or infrared, revealing a spectrum far beyond human perception.
Studying Animal Color Vision Challenges
- Determining color vision in animals relies on behavioral evidence since cell structure alone is not definitive.
- Assumptions about animal color perception must be cautiously made based on experiments and anatomy.
Evolutionary Puzzle of Color Signals
- John Wines studied lizards whose bright color patches disappeared and reappeared through evolution.
- This raised questions about how color signals and vision co-evolve with species interactions.
