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There are green insects, reptiles and birds, but no green mammals. Why?
- aaron695 5y ago"Mammalogist Maria Rutzmoser of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology suggests a more complex explanation: that small mammals—the ones needing protective coloration the most—typically live on the ground, scurrying in leaf litter. "Dead leaves aren't green," she points out. "They're brown."" Get funding to create a GAN to see what color is actual the best for hunted mammals. Sell to military.
- Turing_Machine 5y ago> "Dead leaves aren't green," she points out. "They're brown."" The article mentions that some sloths appear green because they grow algae. Sloths live in treetops among living leaves, so that would be consistent with her hypothesis.
- aaron695 5y agoTree trunks are brown too, so sideways is often brown. Brown in a sea of green looks like a stick. Green in a sea of brown to me seems more unusual. US Military uses Scorpion W2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_Camouflage_Pattern https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_Camouflage_Pattern Multicam - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MultiCam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MultiCam China - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xingkong_(camouflage) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xingkong_(camouflage) (No pics, jungle would be interesting to see)
- airbreather 5y agoMy daughter has "olive" skin that looks distinctly of greenish tinge when she holds her arm next to a piece of white printer paper.
- simmerup 5y agoIt might be worth checking her for jaundice
- airbreather 5y agono that is yellow, it is just a skin type her mother has it as well, I put it down to a mix of quarter dutch and 1/64 australian aboriginal
- simmerup 5y agoDepends on the type, my friend went green. But if you’re sure that’s good, that sounds unique
- da39a3ee 5y agoTwo explanations for green color in terrestrial animals that come to mind are (1) camouflage and (2) sexual selection for bright external colors. Many mammals are nocturnal, which renders both of those inapplicable. But, one might think that green would be advantageous as camouflage to arboreal diurnal mammals such as monkeys, that have predators including large forest hawks and eagles. However, just because you have a selective hypothesis doesn't mean you necessarily expect it to have occurred in evolutionary history. In particular, we may not be looking at equilibrium states: perhaps the monkeys were nocturnal until recently, or perhaps vegetation distribution shifts have recently brought the predator-prey combinations we see today into contact.
- denton-scratch 5y agoSome sloths are green, from the algae that live in their coats.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- Graziano_M 5y agoLiterally the first line of the article.
- jjt-yn_t 5y agoDo the eyes count?