In our newly published research in Science Advances, my student Ben Alessio and I propose a potential mechanism explaining how these distinctive patterns form—that could potentially be applied to ...

Reef fish in different oceans often develop similar color patterns because evolution explores the same set of biological possibilities.

Why does a Caribbean angelfish sometimes resemble its Indo-Pacific cousin, even though they have never lived in the same ocean? Why do coral reefs harbor such a wide range of stripes, spots and ...

Heliconius charithonia is one of the species of butterflies whose wing patterns scientists scrutinized to better understand the evolutionary process. This butterfly is wild-type; the genetically ...

The little marsh swarmed with insects. Tiny moths popped up from the grass, darted a short distance and then disappeared back into the grass. Small wood nymph butterflies kept searching for the ...

Many mammals have fur the color of brown and black. Why don't they have more exotic colors, like purple and neon pink?

How the leopard got its spots and the zebra its stripes might not be just-so stories much longer. Biologists are beginning to pinpoint the molecular mechanisms animals use to deck themselves out with ...