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Physiological and Morphological Color Changes in Teleosts and in Reptiles

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Pigments, Pigment Cells and Pigment Patterns

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Abstract

The spectacular changes in the beautiful coloration and conspicuous patterns in animals have commanded the attention of a wide range of people, including hobbyists, scuba divers, and even zoologists since Aristotle’s time. For the animals themselves, these color changes and pattern formations can represent strategies of the utmost importance for the survival of individuals or of species. For instance, cryptic coloration and pattern formation is useful for avoiding attacks by predatory animals. On poikilothermic vertebrates, slow changes in integumental coloration and patterns can be attributed to increases and decreases in the number of chromatophores which possess pigmentary substances and/or high refractive index materials in cytoplasm. These slow changes are generally referred to as the “morphological color changes.” Conversely, the more rapid changes in color and patterns are called “physiological color changes” and are attributed to the motile activities of chromatophores, to the aggregation of chromatosomes in the perikaryon and their dispersion throughout the cytoplasm or to changes in the arrangement of the high refractive index materials in the cytoplasm. This chapter explores the various studies on the morphological and/or physiological color changes in poikilothermic vertebrates, fish, and reptiles.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to K. Miyaji, A. Murakami, M. Ohata, and M. Sugimoto for their observations and discussions about chromatophores and to M.C. Brandley, M. Hasegawa, G. Morimoto for their valuable discussions about the ecology and evolution of reptile coloration. We also thank the members of the Laboratory of Geographical Ecology of Toho University for their field assistance. It is a pleasure to thank for Risa Goda for her assistance in taking photographs of fish, and Isao Ohta, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, for his unfailing assistance in taking electron micrographs. This research was partially supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to M. Hasegawa (19H03307).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan

    Makoto Goda

  2. Institute of Natural and Environmental Sciences, University of Hyogo, Hyogo, Japan

    Takeo Kuriyama

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  1. Makoto Goda
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  2. Takeo Kuriyama
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Correspondence to Makoto Goda .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

    Hisashi Hashimoto

  2. Preeminent Medical Photonics Education & Research Center, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan

    Makoto Goda

  3. Bioproduction Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Ryo Futahashi

  4. Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Bath, Bath, UK

    Robert Kelsh

  5. Department of Biology, Keio University, Yokohama, Japan

    Toyoko Akiyama

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Goda, M., Kuriyama, T. (2021). Physiological and Morphological Color Changes in Teleosts and in Reptiles. In: Hashimoto, H., Goda, M., Futahashi, R., Kelsh, R., Akiyama, T. (eds) Pigments, Pigment Cells and Pigment Patterns. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-1490-3_13

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