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The appearance of an amelanistic animal depends on the remaining non-melanin pigments. The opposite of amelanism is melanism, a higher percentage of melanin. [citation needed] A similar condition, albinism, is a hereditary condition characterised in animals by the absence of pigment in the eyes, skin, hair, scales, feathers or cuticle. [1]
Some animals are brightly coloured, while others are hard to see. In some species, such as the peafowl, the male has strong patterns, conspicuous colours and is iridescent, while the female is far less visible. There are several separate reasons why animals have evolved colours. Camouflage enables an animal to remain hidden from view.
The feathers that would be normally green are blue, and the feathers that would be yellow are white. Axanthism is a mutation that interferes with an animal's ability to produce yellow pigment. The mutation affects the amount of xanthophores and carotenoid vesicles , sometimes causing them to be completely absent. [ 1 ]
Considering that a large proportion of the visible light spectrum is absorbed before reaching the deep sea, most of the emitted light from the sea-animals is blue and green. However, some species may emit a red and infrared light, and there has even been a genus that is found to emit yellow bioluminescence.
Chromatophores in the skin of a squid. Chromatophores are cells that produce color, of which many types are pigment-containing cells, or groups of cells, found in a wide range of animals including amphibians, fish, reptiles, crustaceans and cephalopods. Mammals and birds, in contrast, have a class of cells called melanocytes for coloration.
Aposematism is widespread in insects, but less so in vertebrates, being mostly confined to a smaller number of reptile, amphibian, and fish species, and some foul-smelling or aggressive mammals. Pitohuis, red and black birds whose toxic feathers and skin apparently comes from the poisonous beetles they ingest, could be included. [17]
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The brilliant iridescent colors of the peacock's tail feathers are created by structural coloration, as first noted by Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke.. Structural coloration in animals, and a few plants, is the production of colour by microscopically structured surfaces fine enough to interfere with visible light instead of pigments, although some structural coloration occurs in combination ...