by Matthew Cobb
This brief video shows the amazing camouflage of this tiny fish (yes, seahorses are fish; what else would they be?), and explores how scientists have been studying their reproduction and growth.
JAC: This is one way to determine whether a trait (yellow color) is hardwired genetically, or is simply part of the organism’s “norm of reaction”—in this case an evolved developmental program which can code for different but still adaptive outcomes in different environments (in this case, different color and ornamentation). It would be a nice experiment to rear the babies in a variety of different backgrounds, just to see how different they can become. It’s possible that, like octopuses, they can match a whole panoply of different substrates.
One issue: The video implies that the tubercles grown by the baby seahorses on purple sea fans matched the bumps on those sea fans. But I don’t see any difference in the shape of the tubercles induced by living on orange vs. purple sea fans. Maybe I’m wrong, but the video implies that mimicry can affect not only color, but tubercle shape.
h/t Simon Singh
In a reversal, we now pin the horse on the fan.
Beautiful video!
So Cute! It must be weird living in a place that looks like you and all your friends. I imagine it’s like living on/in a house made out of humans. Then they may think I’m weird for having no camouflage.
Their eyes are the only way I could spot them. Are there any animals that have camouflaged eyes, not just the lids?
Chameleons? Not that their eyes have what we’d call “lids”, AFAICT.
Many have eyes the same color as the surrounding flesh, or stripes that line up with skin stripes; some have markings that break up the round plainness of the pupil itself–see crocodile fish:
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/eye-of-crocodilefish-close-up-sulawesi-high-res-stock-photography/99642335
And some have just reduced the size of the pupil to pinpoints. Google some images of frogfish.
That was fascinating! Thanks so much for sharing it.
Yes!
From the way they phrased it, I read that the tubercules “matched the substrate,” which could be by shape, colour or spacing, not just by shape. Simply matching the spacing would be relatively labile, wouldn’t it?
I wonder what the mechanisms are for recognition of different color substrates and then matching them.
I had the same question come to mind. Many creatures like chameleons and sole do.
Thanks. Our pondering has taken me to chromatophores:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatophore
Yes. Aren’t they ducky? There are several basic mechanisms. I suspect the sea horse has one of those.
Sub
Entrancing vid! Love the scene where the foal, er, fry emerges.
How do they know it’s name is “Spot”? Does it sit up and beg when you call it’s name?
Beautiful little Animals.