ArticleCommunications biology2021
Variable crab camouflage patterns defeat search image formation.
Article in Communications biology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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
13 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Canal Construction Disrupts Camouflage in Two Sympatric Estuarine Crab Species.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Are Toxic Butterflies More Easily Detected by Human 'Predators'?Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Pink Cricket Club: Dramatic color change in a Neotropical leaf-masquerading katydid (Arota festae, Griffini, 1896).Ecology · 2026Article
- Article
- Functional and evolutionary synergy of trait components can explain the existence of leaf masquerade in katydids.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Role of body size and shape in animal camouflage.Ecology and evolution · 2024Review
- Predator selection on phenotypic variability of cryptic and aposematic moths.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Adapting genetic algorithms for artificial evolution of visual patterns under selection from wild predators.PloS one · 2024Article
- Artificial light at night causes conflicting behavioural and morphological defence responses in a marine isopod.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- CamoEvo: An open access toolbox for artificial camouflage evolution experiments.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- Varying benefits of generalist and specialist camouflage in two versus four background environments.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
- 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
- Dynamic color change in the grouperBehavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Understanding what maintains the broad spectrum of variation in animal phenotypes and how this influences survival is a key question in biology. Frequency dependent selection - where predators temporarily focus on one morph at the expense of others by forming a "search image" - can help explain this phenomenon. However, past work has never tested real prey colour patterns, and rarely considered the role of different types of camouflage. Using a novel citizen science computer experiment that presented crab "prey" to humans against natural backgrounds in specific sequences, we were able to test a range of key hypotheses concerning the interactions between predator learning, camouflage and morph. As predicted, switching between morphs did hinder detection, and this effect was most pronounced when crabs had "disruptive" markings that were more effective at destroying the body outline. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence for variability in natural colour patterns hindering search image formation in predators, and as such presents a mechanism that facilitates phenotypic diversity in nature.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.