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    To be seen or to hide : visual characteristics of body patterns for camouflage and communication in the Australian giant cuttlefish Sepia apama

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    659626.pdf (31.77Mb)
    Date
    2011-04-06
    Author
    Zylinski, S.  Concept link
    How, M. J.  Concept link
    Osorio, D.  Concept link
    Hanlon, Roger T.  Concept link
    Marshall, N. J.  Concept link
    Metadata
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    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/4616
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1086/659626
    Related Material/Data
    https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8527
    DOI
    10.1086/659626
    Keyword
     Camouflage; Communication; Signaling; Image structure; Cephalopods; Vision 
    Abstract
    It might seem obvious that a camouflaged animal must generally match its background whereas to be conspicuous an organism must differ from the background. However, the image parameters (or statistics) that evaluate the conspicuousness of patterns and textures are seldom well defined, and animal coloration patterns are rarely compared quantitatively with their respective backgrounds. Here we examine this issue in the Australian giant cuttlefish Sepia apama. We confine our analysis to the best-known and simplest image statistic, the correlation in intensity between neighboring pixels. Sepia apama can rapidly change their body patterns from assumed conspicuous signaling to assumed camouflage, thus providing an excellent and unique opportunity to investigate how such patterns differ in a single visual habitat. We describe the intensity variance and spatial frequency power spectra of these differing body patterns and compare these patterns with the backgrounds against which they are viewed. The measured image statistics of camouflaged animals closely resemble their backgrounds, while signaling animals differ significantly from their backgrounds. Our findings may provide the basis for a set of general rules for crypsis and signals. Furthermore, our methods may be widely applicable to the quantitative study of animal coloration.
    Description
    Author Posting. © University of Chicago, 2011. This article is posted here by permission of University of Chicago for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in American Naturalist 177 (2011): 681-690, doi:10.1086/659626.
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    Suggested Citation
    American Naturalist 177 (2011): 681-690
     

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