Zebras and tigers have stripes, cheetahs and leopards have spots, and the ocellated lizard (Timon lepidus) boasts a labyrinthine pattern of black-and-green chains of scales. Now researchers from the ...

September 7, 2021 (Huntsville, Alabama)- Members of the Felidae family, more commonly referred to as cats, come in a variety of sizes and a range of varying fur colors and patterns. Tigers with black ...

Biologists have found that a simple interaction between just two genes determines the patterns of fur coloration that camouflage mice against their background, protecting them from many predators. The ...

Scientists are moving closer to answering some age-old questions. How did the leopard get its spots? How did the zebra get its stripes? The answer may be a gene called Agouti, which the scientists ...

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Scientists at Harvard University are moving closer to answering some age-old questions. How did the leopard get its spots? How did the zebra get its stripes? The answer may be a ...

In our newly published research in Science Advances, my student Ben Alessio and I propose a potential mechanism explaining how these distinctive patterns form—that could potentially be applied to ...

How the leopard got its spots and the zebra its stripes might not be just-so stories much longer. Biologists are beginning to pinpoint the molecular mechanisms animals use to deck themselves out with ...