ArticleScientific reports2016
Colour Polymorphism Protects Prey Individuals and Populations Against Predation.
Article in Scientific reports, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Untangling Colour Diversity: Ecogeographic Patterns in TwoEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Fluorescent proteins generate a genetic color polymorphism and counteract oxidative stress in intertidal sea anemones.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Predator selection on phenotypic variability of cryptic and aposematic moths.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Color polymorphism and mating trends in a population of the alpine leaf beetle Oreina gloriosa.PloS one · 2024Article
- Crypsis by background matching and disruptive coloration as drivers of substrate occupation in sympatric Amazonian bark praying mantises.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Article
- The Case for Octopus Consciousness: Temporality.NeuroSci · 2022Review
- Multispecies colour polymorphisms associated with contrasting microhabitats in two Mediterranean wrasse radiations.Journal of evolutionary biology · 2022Article
- Under pressure: phenotypic divergence and convergence associated with microhabitat adaptations in Triatominae.Parasites & vectors · 2021Article
- From micro- to macroevolution: brood parasitism as a driver of phenotypic diversity in birds.Current zoology · 2020Article
- Article
- Contrasting patterns of neutral and functional genetic diversity in stable and disturbed environments.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
- On the role of sex differences for evolution in heterogeneous and changing fitness landscapes: insights from pygmy grasshoppers.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2018Review
- Camouflage strategies interfere differently with observer search images.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Balanced genetic diversity improves population fitness.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Faster poleward range shifts in moths with more variable colour patterns.Scientific reports · 2016Article
- Antagonistic effects of predator color morph abundance and saliency on prey anti-predator responses.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Colour pattern polymorphism in animals can influence and be influenced by interactions between predators and prey. However, few studies have examined whether polymorphism is adaptive, and there is no evidence that the co-occurrence of two or more natural prey colour variants can increase survival of populations. Here we show that visual predators that exploit polymorphic prey suffer from reduced performance, and further provide rare evidence in support of the hypothesis that prey colour polymorphism may afford protection against predators for both individuals and populations. This protective effect provides a probable explanation for the longstanding, evolutionary puzzle of the existence of colour polymorphisms. We also propose that this protective effect can provide an adaptive explanation for search image formation in predators rather than search image formation explaining polymorphism.
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