Evolution of Coloration Patterns

There is an amazing amount of diversity in coloration patterns in nature. The ease of observing this diversity and the recent application of genetic and molecular techniques to model and nonmodel animals are allowing us to investigate the genetic basis and evolution of coloration in an ever-increasing variety of animals. It is now possible to ask questions about how many genes are responsible for any given pattern, what types of genetic changes have occurred to generate the diversity, and if the same underlying genetic changes occur repeatedly when coloration phenotypes arise through convergent evolution or parallel evolution.