ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2017
Camouflage through colour change: mechanisms, adaptive value and ecological significance.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 72 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Predator responses to prey camouflage strategies: a meta-analysis.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Color change, background choice, and camouflage in a nocturnal treefrog: implications for circadian adaptation.Zoological research · 2026Article
- Convergent evolution of dynamic camouflage: humidity-responsive shell colouration in arboreal snails.Zoological letters · 2026Article
- Canal Construction Disrupts Camouflage in Two Sympatric Estuarine Crab Species.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Dynamic colour change predicts movement behaviour in a diadromous fish.Journal of fish biology · 2026Article
- Pink Cricket Club: Dramatic color change in a Neotropical leaf-masquerading katydid (Arota festae, Griffini, 1896).Ecology · 2026Article
- Functional Analysis of theBiotech (Basel (Switzerland)) · 2026Article
- The Geographical Variation of Colour Change in the Arabian Killifish (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Iridophore apoptosis mediates socially-regulated developmental color pattern plasticity in an anemonefish.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- The Complexity of Communication in Mammals: From Social and Emotional Mechanisms to Human Influence and Multimodal Applications.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Article
- Fading on the beach: pigmentation plasticity adjusts coloration to substrate type in coastal Western spadefoot toads.Current zoology · 2025Article
- Flap-necked chameleons change colour to match their background.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Factors Driving Background Choice in Scorpionfish.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Bio-inspired multispectral camouflage material for microwave, infrared, and visible bands based on single hierarchical metasurface.Nanophotonics (Berlin, Germany) · 2025Article
- Circadian Rhythm of Body Color Change in the Juvenile Chinese Giant Salamander (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Eyespot peek-a-boo: Leaf rolls enhance the antipredator effect of insect eyespots.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- Stealth and deception: Adaptive motion camouflage in hunting broadclub cuttlefish.Science advances · 2025Article
- Coloration in a Praying Mantis: Color Change, Sexual Color Dimorphism, and Possible Camouflage Strategies.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Dynamic colour change in zebrafish (Royal Society open science · 2025Article
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Animals from a wide range of taxonomic groups are capable of colour change, of which camouflage is one of the main functions. A considerable amount of past work on this subject has investigated species capable of extremely rapid colour change (in seconds). However, relatively slow colour change (over hours, days, weeks and months), as well as changes arising via developmental plasticity are probably more common than rapid changes, yet less studied. We discuss three key areas of colour change and camouflage. First, we review the mechanisms underpinning colour change and developmental plasticity for camouflage, including cellular processes, visual feedback, hormonal control and dietary factors. Second, we discuss the adaptive value of colour change for camouflage, including the use of different camouflage types. Third, we discuss the evolutionary-ecological implications of colour change for concealment, including what it can tell us about intraspecific colour diversity, morph-specific strategies, and matching to different environments and microhabitats. Throughout, we discuss key unresolved questions and present directions for future work, and highlight how colour change facilitates camouflage among habitats and arises when animals are faced with environmental changes occurring over a range of spatial and temporal scales.This article is part of the themed issue 'Animal coloration: production, perception, function and application'.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.