Sensory Drive, Color, and Color Vision

Colors often appear to differ in arbitrary ways among related species. However, a fraction of color diversity may be explained because some signals are more easily perceived in one environment rather than another. Models show that not only signals but also the perception of signals should regularly evolve in response to different environments, whether these primarily involve detection of conspecifics or detection of predators and prey. Thus, a deeper understanding of how perception of color correlates with environmental attributes should help generate more predictive models of color divergence. Here, I briefly review our understanding of color vision in vertebrates. Then I focus on opsin spectral tuning and opsin expression, two traits involved in color perception that have become amenable to study. I ask how opsin tuning is correlated with ecological differences, notably the light environment, and how this potentially affects perception of conspecific colors. Although opsin tuning appears to evolve slowly, opsin expression levels are more evolutionarily labile but have been difficult to connect to color perception. The challenge going forward will be to identify how physiological differences involved in color vision, such as opsin expression levels, translate into perceptual differences, the selection pressures that have driven those differences, and ultimately how this may drive evolution of conspecific colors.