Two Tenerife Lizards (IMAGE)
Caption
Two Tenerife lizards (Gallotia galloti) are basking. The image on the left is in human-visible colors and although the male at the top is more colorful than the female at the bottom, he is still fairly well camouflaged amongst the foliage. However, the dusky blue/grey patches on his cheek and bars on his flank are much more conspicuous to the female lizard than ourselves, as highlighted in the false color UV image on the right. This demonstrates how colors can be used as private signals in some species where evolutionary pressures for sexual signalling compete with evading predators.
Credit
Jolyon Troscianko
Usage Restrictions
None
License
Licensed content