ArticleeLife2021
Evolution of brilliant iridescent feather nanostructures.
Article in eLife, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- How barbule orientation drives iridescent coloration in Coeligena hummingbirds.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Bioinspired maskless structural colour patterning via tunable nanoparticle segregation.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Structural Coloration and Carotenoids Together Create the Vibrant Colors of Peafowl Feathers.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Iridescent structural coloration in a crested Cretaceous enantiornithine bird from the Jehol Biota.eLife · 2025Article
- Biomimetic UV photo-protection of skin surface by structured epicuticular wax films.Materials today. Bio · 2025Article
- Spectral fingerprint of laser emission from rhodamine 6g infused male Indian Peafowl tail feathers.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Experimental data suggest between population reversal in the condition dependence of two sexually selected traits.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Hyperspectral imaging in animal coloration research: A user-friendly pipeline for image generation, analysis, and integration with 3D modeling.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Transitions between colour mechanisms affect speciation dynamics and range distributions of birds.Nature ecology & evolution · 2024Article
- Nanoscale millefeuilles produce iridescent bill ornaments in birds.PNAS nexus · 2024Article
- Genetic Basis and Evolution of Structural Color Polymorphism in an Australian Songbird.Molecular biology and evolution · 2024Article
- Iridescence Mimicking in Fabrics: A Ultraviolet/Visible Spectroscopy Study.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- How keratin cortex thickness affects iridescent feather colours.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The brilliant iridescent plumage of birds creates some of the most stunning color displays known in the natural world. Iridescent plumage colors are produced by nanostructures in feathers and have evolved in diverse birds. The building blocks of these structures-melanosomes (melanin-filled organelles)-come in a variety of forms, yet how these different forms contribute to color production across birds remains unclear. Here, we leverage evolutionary analyses, optical simulations, and reflectance spectrophotometry to uncover general principles that govern the production of brilliant iridescence. We find that a key feature that unites all melanosome forms in brilliant iridescent structures is thin melanin layers. Birds have achieved this in multiple ways: by decreasing the size of the melanosome directly, by hollowing out the interior, or by flattening the melanosome into a platelet. The evolution of thin melanin layers unlocks color-producing possibilities, more than doubling the range of colors that can be produced with a thick melanin layer and simultaneously increasing brightness. We discuss the implications of these findings for the evolution of iridescent structures in birds and propose two evolutionary paths to brilliant iridescence.
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