Camouflage
Videos
Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples i
The peacock flounder can change its pattern and colours to match its environment.
A soldier applying camouflage face paint; both helmet and jacket are disruptively patterned.
Octopuses like this Octopus cyanea can change colour (and shape) for camouflage
Experiment by Poulton, 1890: swallowtailed moth pupae with camouflage they acquired as larvae
Animal coloration provided important early evidence for evolution by natural selection, at a time when little direct evidence was available. Three major functions of coloration were discovered in the
Natural selection has driven the ptarmigan to change from snow camouflage in winter to disruptive coloration suiting moorland in summer.
Selective breeding transformed teosinte's small spikes (left) into modern maize (right). Darwin argued that evolution worked in a similar way.
Convergent evolution of snow camouflage in Arctic hare, ermine, and ptarmigan provided early evidence for natural selection.
Hugh Cott's drawings of 'coincident disruptive coloration' formed "persuasive arguments" for natural selection. Left: active; right: at rest, marks coinciding.