龟鳖动物体色研究进展

A Review on the Study of Chelonian Coloration

体色是动物重要的形态特征,具有信息传递、体温调节和反捕食等功能。动物体色的研究近2个世纪,已在进化和适应方面取得了较大突破,开拓了行为生态学研究的新方向,极大地促进了应用心理学、计算机科学和军事等应用学科的发展。在目前已知的356种龟鳖动物中,体色多样,但由于其特殊的甲壳结构,龟鳖动物体色研究起步较晚,各种体色的生态适应意义尚不清楚。自20世纪50年代以来,在龟鳖动物体色的形成和调节、信息传递以及伪装策略等方面研究有所突破。这些研究表明,龟鳖动物在激素的调节下,色素发生变化导致体色改变;水生龟鳖动物受环境颜色影响较大,陆生龟鳖动物体色受环境颜色影响较小;部分物种的体色存在两性异形,雄龟通过向雌龟展示身上的色斑来求偶;背景匹配、混隐色和乔装3种伪装策略的研究证明龟鳖动物体色能够提供反捕食优势;深色的龟鳖动物在体温调节和种内竞争中都比浅色个体更有优势。目前,龟鳖动物图案的形成、腹甲颜色和特殊体色的功能适应等研究进展较慢,而且尚无相关的研究检验龟鳖动物的体色是否符合葛洛格定律,未来开展这些方面的研究可以促进理解龟鳖动物体色的生态适应和进化。

Coloration is an important morphological feature of animals,and is helpful for communication,thermoregulation and anti-predation.In the past two centuries,animal coloration study has made great breakthroughs in the field of evolution and adaptation,and opened new trends of behavioral ecological study and greatly promoted the development of applied psychology,computer science and military science.There are various colorations among the 356 known chelonian species.However,due to the special structure of their carapaces,study on chelonian colorations started late.Hence,the ecological adaptive significance of various colorations is still mysterious.Since the 1950s,breakthroughs have been made in studying the formation and regulation of animal coloration,communication and camouflage strategies.These studies showed that chelonian coloration is mainly influenced by the deposition of melanin due to hormonal regulation.Aquatic species were greatly affected by environmental color,while terrestrial species were less influenced.Chelonian coloration has various functions.For example,male individuals with dimorphism show their spots to females for courting.Three camouflage strategies including background matching,disruptive coloration and masquerade have been proved to provide anti-predation advantages.Dark-colored chelonians have advantages over light-colored individuals in both thermoregulation and intraspecific competition.Currently,the study progress on the formation of patterns,the functional adaptation of the color of plastron and the special chelonian coloration is relatively slow.Furthermore,there is no relevant study to test whether chelonian coloration conforms to the Gloger’s rule.Further studies focus on these aspects will promote the understanding of the ecological adaptation and evolution of chelonian coloration.