Spiders [1], salamanders [2], fish [3] and birds (e.g. [4] [7]) use conspicuous visual and/or olfactory objects as a defense against predators, and to attract potential prey and mates.
In this multimodal signalling species, simultaneous with conspicuous visual displays, males produce percussive seismic signals via an impulse mechanism which tends to excite a substrate evenly across a wide band of frequencies.
Here, we investigated whether the coloration of Aegean wall lizards (Podarcis erhardii) has adapted for conspicuous visual signaling to conspecifics while minimizing detection by predators through decreased conspicuousness and signal partitioning.
Gaping structures (i.e., flanges and mouth cavity) are the most conspicuous visual traits that unfeathered nestlings display to their parents, although skin color at other body parts may also reveal aspects of nestling quality [6], [7], [11].
Nestlings of altricial birds capture parents' attention through conspicuous visual displays, including exposure of their gape coloration which informs parents about their level of need, competitive ability or health; information that parents use for deciding food allocation among their offspring.
Recently, we showed that postnatal environmental enrichment, a condition of increased physical exercise, social interactions and sensory stimulation, results in a conspicuous acceleration of visual system development at behavioral, electrophysiological and molecular level [2] [4].
Chaetodontids were included as they were easily identified, highly visible (even at a small size), and are a conspicuous family, often included in visual censuses.
A conspicuous disparity persists.
George is a conspicuous communicator.
(Daniel McGowan is a conspicuous McCartney look-alike).
