世界各地的鳥類愛好者們大都對(duì)這些擁有著五顏六色羽毛的動(dòng)物十分著迷,，但根據(jù)最近的研究發(fā)現(xiàn),，這些鳥兒們其實(shí)可能并不會(huì)在意自己的色彩如何,。
據(jù)國(guó)外媒體報(bào)道，科學(xué)家們認(rèn)為,，鳥兒們之所以不會(huì)特別重視自己羽毛的顏色,，是因?yàn)樗鼈兺耆珶o法解釋顏色的概念——盡管有觀點(diǎn)認(rèn)為，鳥類對(duì)于紫外線色調(diào)的感知要超過人類的大腦,。研究者認(rèn)為鳥類眼中的世界同人類是不一樣的,，“色彩空間”對(duì)他們的意義并不包括自己身上羽毛的圖案是如何的。
鳥兒們可能并不會(huì)在意自己的色彩如何
該項(xiàng)目的首席研究員瑪麗-卡斯維爾-斯托達(dá)(Mary Caswell Stoddard)表示,，鳥類是地球上最豐富多彩的生物體之一,，對(duì)于人類的研究鳥類似乎擁有幾乎可以想象到的所有色彩,，但鳥兒們看到的世界與我們是截然不同的。該項(xiàng)研究的結(jié)果已發(fā)表在《行為生態(tài)學(xué)》期刊(the journal Behavioural Ecology)中,。
瑪麗和在美國(guó)工作的劍橋科學(xué)家同事們研究了諸多鳥類的顏色和它們眼中其它鳥類的狀況,，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)大部分鳥類的羽毛在其它鳥兒眼中,，就像打印出的報(bào)紙一般只是一種色彩子集,。需要思考的是為什么羽毛的顏色只限于這一個(gè)子集，而其它外色域的顏色則不在其中,，這或許是對(duì)它們不利的。
但這不意味著鳥類的顏色不會(huì)最終演變擴(kuò)大出新的顏色,。研究報(bào)告的合著者,，耶魯大學(xué)的理查德-普魯姆(Richard Prum)博士表示，新顏色的形成演化和創(chuàng)新能使鳥類的色彩空間踏入新領(lǐng)域,，人類的服裝在紫紅色苯胺染料發(fā)明前也是比較單調(diào)的,，但化學(xué)發(fā)明讓衣服的顏色變得更加多樣化,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原文出處：
Behavioural Ecology doi: 10.1093/beheco/arr088
How colorful are birds? Evolution of the avian plumage color gamut
Mary Caswell Stoddard and Richard O. Prum
The avian plumage color gamut is the complete range of plumage colors, as seen by birds themselves. We used a tetrahedral avian color stimulus space to estimate the avian plumage color gamut from a taxonomically diverse sample of 965 plumage patches from 111 avian species. Our sample represented all known types of plumage coloration mechanisms. The diversity of avian plumage colors occupies only a portion (26–30%, using violet-sensitive and ultraviolet-sensitive models, respectively) of the total available avian color space, which represents all colors birds can theoretically see and discriminate. For comparison, we also analyzed 2350 plant colors, including an expansive set of flowers. Bird plumages have evolved away from brown bark and green leaf backgrounds and have achieved some striking colors unattainable by flowers. Feather colors form discrete hue “continents,” leaving vast regions of avian color space unoccupied. We explore several possibilities for these unoccupied hue regions. Some plumage colors may be difficult or impossible to make (constrained by physiological and physical mechanisms), whereas others may be disadvantageous or unattractive (constrained by natural and sexual selection). The plumage gamut of early lineages of living birds was probably small and dominated by melanin-based colors. Over evolutionary time, novel coloration mechanisms allowed plumages to colonize unexplored regions of color space. Pigmentary innovations evolved to broaden the gamut of possible communication signals. Furthermore, the independent origins of structural coloration in many lineages enabled evolutionary expansions into places unreachable by pigmentary mechanisms alone.
