The Fall 2023 Biology Seminar Series continues with a talk from Whitney Tsai Nakashima, "Evolution of visual system and color diversity in birds."
Birds see and produce an astonishing diversity of colors that span the human visible and ultraviolet spectrums. These colors are produced by numerous mechanisms and perceived by birds differently depending on their visual system sensitivity. Despite the wealth of knowledge on bird coloration and vision, few large-scale comparative studies link the evolution of the avian visual system and the colors birds produce. Using genomic data, 3D models of bird museum specimens, and a resolved phylogeny of all bird species we examine how visual system sensitivity evolves across the bird tree of life. Understanding the link between the avian visual system and the color birds produce, we can gain a better understanding of how birds evolved such an incredible diversity of colors.
