WHY ARE THERE BRIGHT COLORS IN SESSILE MARINE-INVERTEBRATES

Bright colors are common in species of shallow rocky areas world-wide, and appear not only in animals exposed to bright light but also in those living in dark areas. Coloration can serve in visual predator-prey relationships, enabling a predator to learn to avoid unprofitable prey or inhibiting its ability to learn to recognize prey. Coloration can be incidental to pigments involved in physiological processes, including photosensitivity, photoprotection, storage of food products, mechanical support, and aerobic metabolism. Coloration also can be derived from photosynthetic pigments of symbionts. Intensity and pattern of pigmentation can depend on food supplies, depth, intensity of the ambient light, and geographic location. Coloration within a species of sponge, cnidarian or ascidian can be relatively constant, or consist of many morphs. The morphs may be under genetic control or can indicate cryptic species. In most sessile invertebrates, however, the causes of the color patterns are not known, and could include pleiotropic gene activity, cellular activity during early development, or random neutral mutations at the molecular level. -from Authors

WHY ARE THERE BRIGHT COLORS IN SESSILE MARINE-INVERTEBRATES Academic Article