The Color Series #004 — Coloration in Nature

7 min readMar 24, 2022

Here at Coloration.io, our name comes from color, art, & nature itself. Today in the Color Series, we’ll be discussing Coloration in Nature, along with providing some examples of Coloration in the Wild.

First, let’s go over the official definition of the word coloration:

coloration

Pronounced: Col·or·a·tion

— noun —

Definitions of coloration:
1. the appearance of something with regard to color.
2. a specified pervading character or tone of something.
3. the state of having color.
4. use or choice of colors (as by an artist)
5. arrangement of colors —
(the coloration of a butterfly’s wing).

6. a characteristic quality

History & Etymology coloration

The modern english word “coloration” is borrowed from Middle French & Late Latin; meaning: “to color”

Coloration is all around you!

Pictured above is a beautiful example of coloration in nature, a spectacularly unique ocean dweller called the Blue Ringed Octopus.

Squids, octopuses, and cuttlefishes are among the few animals in the world that can change the color of their skin in the blink of an eye. These cephalopods —a group of mollusks with arms attached to their heads—can change their skin tone to match their surroundings, rendering them nearly invisible, or alternatively give themselves a pattern that makes them stand out.

Structural Coloration in Nature

Nature’s color has three main sources: pigments, structural colors and bioluminescence. Structural color is a special one, which is the color produced by micro- or nano-structures, and is bright and dazzling. The most common mechanisms of structural colors are film interference, diffraction grating, scattering and photonic crystals. Biological colors are mainly derived from film interference, which includes thin-film and multi-film interference. The diffraction grating mechanism is found in, for example, seed shrimp, mollusk Haliotis Glabra and the Hibiscus trionum flower. Scattering includes coherent and incoherent scattering. Well-known examples of coherent scattering include colors produced by brilliant iridescent butterfly wing scales and avian feather barbules, such as the peacock’s tail. Examples of colors produced by photonic crystal structures include opal in beetles and iridescent spines in the sea mouse. Coloration changes occur through structural changes for camouflage, predation, signal communication and sex choice.

Color and Animals

While animals come in a variety of shades and hues, coloration is an important adaptation that can mean the difference between life and death. Whether an animal wants to blend in with its environment, such as the spots on a quiet fan fawn, or stand out, such as a squawking blue jay, their coloration is a genetically inherited trait. While there maybe some minor variations that is unique to a certain species, most is predictable.

Most mammals are covered in hair to protect them from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. Color in animals is determined by pigment groups. Melanin produces browns and blacks. It is the most abundant surface pigment of animals and so creates a high frequency of dark coloration. Hemoglobin produces reds and carotenoids produce yellow, oranges, reddish orange, and pink. Guanine produce whites. Blues and greens are rare in animals, since there is no blue or green pigment, are caused by the interaction of light waves, especially in iridescent colors. Just a few animals, such as the pink of salmon and flamingoes, gain their coloration from the foods they eat. This is known as ingested pigments. Flamingos gain their pink color from carotenoids found in shrimp; If shrimp are removed from their diet, they would turn white.

Categorizing Coloration

The coloration in animals can be categorized, depending upon the function it serves the organism. Camouflage or cryptic coloration enables an animal to become nearly invisible in its surrounding environment. In other words, it allows them to “hide in plain sight”. Cryptic behavior, or the remaining motionless in a concealed area is always accompanied by cryptic coloration. A speckled green frog sitting frozen amongst duckweed in a swampy area is a good example of this coloration.

A seemingly different color adaptation than cryptic coloration, disruptive coloration helps conceal by breaking up the animal’s outline. Even though to our eye, zebras are a bold black and white stripe, the vision of their predators have difficulty picking out the zebra’s stripes from the tall grasses that it is browsing in. On the other hand, the stripes of a tiger, which is a mix of both blending coloration and disruptive patterns allows it to blend into the long grasses of its natural environment.

Albinism

Albino coloration is produced by the lack of pigmentation in the skin, feathers, hair, and eyes. It occurs when a genetic mutation caused by a recessive trait that makes a pigment producing enzyme, such as melanin in humans, nonfunctional.

An example of this mutation can be found at Cayuga Nature Center, where there is a female albino pheasant in the outside live animal display. However, this coloration, or rather the lack of it, is rare in animals. Lacking protective coloration, these animals become easy prey for predators. An example of a predator with albinism is pictured below, where an incredibly rare albino lion lays among the grass and weeds.

Seasonal polymorphism

Seasonal polymorphism is a term meaning seasonal color changes. In some species of months and butterflies, such as the mustard white butterfly, Spring time coloration is bolder or darker. This adaptation increases the effectiveness of solar warming during basking, an activity essential on cooler mornings. Another adaptation strategy is the ability to become lighter or darker with environmental changes. Some animals have the ability to turn a darker shade in cooler temperature which then makes the absorption of solar heat more efficient.

The colors and patterns of birds have evolved in unison with behavior and is used for both concealment and signaling. Males are more brightly colored than females in order to have a higher visual contrast to their surrounding environment. This serves 2 purposes: to compete with other males and to attract a mate. Brighter plumage means a healthier male, something that female birds instinctively know and seek out during mating season. Conversely, females have drab colors, or cryptic coloration, for protection in raising their young.

Iridescence Colors

Iridescence colors are among the more fascinating of natural phenomenon. The “brilliant, shifting colors and metallic sheens found in nature originate from the interaction of reflected light waves rather than from the solid colors of pigments” Colors change with the angle at which light is reflected from brilliant sparkling to dark and drab. This is caused by the way light is reflected from microscopic layers of translucent material.

Coloration in Plants

Plants gain their coloration from the way that pigments within their cells interact with sunlight. Chlorophyll comprises the most important class of these pigments and is responsible for the green color associated with many types of plants.

Naturally, Color is a quality of light, resulting from the selective absorption and reflection of specific wavelengths. White light, such as sunlight, contains a range of wavelengths visible to the human eye that is called the visible spectrum. When white light is refracted through a prism, the visible spectrum can be seen separated into a rainbow of color rays, from red to violet.

In the case of chlorophyll, the pigment absorbs the outer edges of the spectrum—the reds, oranges, blues, and violets. The green and yellow wavelengths, in the middle of the spectrum, are not absorbed but rather reflected from the plant. This reflection is what causes plants with chlorophyll to appear green to the human eye. Plants of different colors contain other pigments, such as anthocyanins, which are responsible for reds and purples; anthoxanthins, which reflect yellow; and carotenoids, which reflect yellow, orange, or red.

When plants change colors in autumn, it is due to their having a mixture of these pigments. In many plants chlorophyll is the dominant pigment, causing the plants to appear green rather than red or purple, which would be caused by anthocyanin. As winter approaches and the weather cools, chlorophyll decomposes, allowing light reflected from other pigments to be seen. This is why many leaves can be seen changing from green to red, orange, and yellow during the fall.

Coloration

Coloration in nature is everywhere! It seems everywhere you look you will see examples of coloration, and the examples outlined in this article are only a small fraction of coloration you can see all throughout nature. Next time you see an animal or plant, think about the colors involved with it, and the reasons why evolution has led that animal or plant to be that color. It can be truly fascinating realizing that colors in nature all have their own unique purpose and utility for existing!