January
23, 2019, Case Western Reserve University
New
research from Case Western Reserve University in how dragonflies may adapt
their wing color to temperature differences might explain color variation in
other animals, from lions to birds.
Further,
the findings could also provide evolutionary biologists clues about whether
rising global temperatures might
adversely affect some species.
Michael
Moore, a graduate biology student, and Ryan Martin, an assistant professor of
biology, recently published their findings in the journal Ecology Letters.
"People
have long been aware of variation in dragonfly wing color, but what we are
showing in this new work is an overlooked environmental factor—how temperature affects
coloration," Martin said. "This could turn out to also determine some
of the really cool extravagant traits we like to look at, such as coloration in
birds."
Their
findings follow a two-year study that began with a hunch about how the wing color on male
Blue Dasher dragonflies in the western United States was different from their
counterparts in Northeast Ohio.
They
reviewed vast amounts of dragonfly photographs compiled by citizen scientists
on the website iNaturalist.org and then, with the help of graduate student
Iulian Gherghel, cross-referenced that information with weather data.
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