Merilaita Sami
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.
Evolution. 2003 Jun;57(6):1248-54. doi: 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2003.tb00333.x.
Cryptic animal coloration or camouflage is an adaptation that decreases the risk of detection. The study of the evolution of camouflage has strongly emphasized the minimization of visual information that predators receive from prey, by means of background matching. However, the evolutionary effects of information processing after its reception have been virtually ignored. I constructed a model that employs an artificial neural network and simulates the evolution of prey coloration in a visually complex and simple habitat. The model suggests: (1) the difficulty of a detection task is related to the visual complexity of the habitat; (2) it is easier to decrease the risk of detection by the means of camouflage in a visually complex habitat; (3) selection on camouflage can exploit limitations in predators information processing; and (4) there are shortcomings in using the degree of background matching as the measure of camouflage.
隐秘动物体色或伪装是一种降低被发现风险的适应性特征。伪装进化的研究一直强烈强调通过背景匹配将捕食者从猎物那里接收到的视觉信息减到最少。然而，信息接收后处理过程的进化效应实际上一直被忽视。我构建了一个模型，该模型采用人工神经网络并模拟在视觉复杂和简单的栖息地中猎物体色的进化。该模型表明：（1）检测任务的难度与栖息地的视觉复杂性有关；（2）在视觉复杂的栖息地中，通过伪装降低被发现的风险更容易；（3）对伪装的选择可以利用捕食者信息处理方面的局限性；（4）将背景匹配程度用作伪装度量存在缺陷。
