Sunday, May 4, 2008

Pheasant Sexual Selection





Kara ward shares this video follow-up to the recent classroom discussions of sexual selection.



3 comments:

NeuroscienceDC May 5, 2008 at 2:48 PM  

Haha, the second pheasant who chases the females is pretty funny. As far as the third pheasant, I thought the iridescent coloring was really cool. I wonder what is biochemical process responsible for producing the different colors...

Unknown May 5, 2008 at 2:54 PM  

Colors in birds (and reptiles) are mostly based on pigments or structure (i.e., iridescence). There is no active biochemical process producing any color on-the-fly if that's what you are asking.

You can learn more about the colors, and much else besides, from my fall class on The Biology of Reptiles and Birds!

NeuroscienceDC May 5, 2008 at 7:01 PM  

Perhaps I might sit in on the class but, sadly, I am graduating. So the different colors pictured in the video are differences in pigment structure?

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