Looking Different 'Helps Animals To Survive'
Sunday, August 9, 2009 - 02:35
in Biology & Nature
In the animal kingdom, everything is not as it seems. Individuals of the same species can look very different from each other -- what biologists term "polymorphism." Sometimes the number of distinct visible forms -- "exuberant polymorphisms" -- in a single animal population can reach double figures. But why? Scientists have now developed computer models that may help to explain how this level of variation arises and persists.