Why are the frills on frillneck lizards red in the west and yellow in the east?
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2019-07-17 09:01
Australian researchers have found differences in the chemical pigments that produce colour which explains why Australia's iconic frillneck lizards tend to have red frills in the west and yellow frills in the east. The researchers found that the red frilled lizards from the west had a higher proportion of red carotenoids compared to yellow ones. Carotenoids are the same sorts of chemicals that give carrots their colour. The researchers also found genetic differences and say the two aspects together suggest red frill coloration is more likely to convey information on individual health than yellow coloration. They say yellow colouration, which may have hormonal links, could be more about signalling other aspects, such as dominance and aggression.
Journal/conference: Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Link to research (DOI): 10.1098/rspb.2019.1172
Organisation/s: The University of Melbourne, Museums Victoria, Victorian Government
Funder: This work was supported by the Australian Research Council to D.S.-F. (grant no. DP150101044) and The University of Melbourne, Alfred Nicholas Fellowship to C.A.M.
Media Release
From: The Royal Society
Red carotenoids and associated gene expression explain colour variation in frillneck lizards
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
The frillneck lizard’s frill is one of the largest ornaments relative to body size of any vertebrate and varies from red to yellow across the species’ geographic range. We show that, unlike other lizards, redder hues are due to a greater proportion of red carotenoids relative to either dietary yellow carotenoids or self-synthesised pteridine pigments. Red frills also have higher expression of several carotenoid metabolism genes; whereas yellow frills have higher expression of genes associated with steroid hormones. Based on differences in pigments and gene expression, we hypothesise that red and yellow frill colour conveys different information on individual quality.
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