Editorial Type:
Article Category: Other
| Online Publication Date: 01 Jun 2013
Reptiles Produce Pheomelanin: Evidence in the Eastern Hermann's Tortoise (Eurotestudo boettgeri)
Reptiles Produce Pheomelanin: Evidence in the Eastern Hermann's Tortoise (Eurotestudo boettgeri)
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Page Range: 258 – 261
DOI: 10.1670/12-028
Reptiles, supposedly, do not produce pheomelanin pigments. Because this claim is based on rather weak evidence, we measured the shell pheomelanin content in the Hermann's Tortoise (Eurotestudo boettgeri). In contrast to expectation, we detected a substantial amount of this pigment. Given the recent interest in the adaptive function of melanin-based color traits, our study opens new avenues of research in reptiles.Abstract
Copyright: 2013
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Eastern Hermann's Tortoise (Eurotestudo boettgeri) displaying yellow with black parts. A distal scute at the center of the animal is partly brown. Photograph by A. Mafli.
Contributor Notes
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Corresponding Author. E-mail: alexandre.roulin@unil.ch
Accepted: 17 Sept 2012
