High refractive index of melanin in shiny occipital feathers of a bird of paradise

Doekele G Stavenga; Hein L Leertouwer; Daniel C Osorio; Bodo D Wilts

doi:10.1038/lsa.2015.16

Go to Nature Website

Your Location：

Home >

Browse articles >

High refractive index of melanin in shiny occipital feathers of a bird of paradise

Original Articles

- High refractive index of melanin in shiny occipital feathers of a bird of paradise
- High refractive index of melanin in shiny occipital feathers of a bird of paradise
- LSA 2015年4卷第1期
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Computational Physics, University of Groningen, 9747 AG, The Netherlands
  2.School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK
- Author bio：
  
  Professor DG Stavenga, Computational Physics, University of Groningen, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands Email: D.G.Stavenga@rug.nl
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/lsa.2015.16
  中图分类号：
- 纸质出版日期：2015-03，
  
  网络出版日期：2014-12-01，
  
  收稿日期：2014-06-23，
  
  修回日期：2014-11-19，
  
  录用日期：2014-11-21
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
High refractive index of melanin in shiny occipital feathers of a bird of paradise[J]. LSA, 2015,4(1).

Stavenga, D. G. et al. High refractive index of melanin in shiny occipital feathers of a bird of paradise. Light: Science & Applications, 4, e243 (2015).
High refractive index of melanin in shiny occipital feathers of a bird of paradise[J]. LSA, 2015,4(1). DOI： 10.1038/lsa.2015.16.

Stavenga, D. G. et al. High refractive index of melanin in shiny occipital feathers of a bird of paradise. Light: Science & Applications, 4, e243 (2015). DOI： 10.1038/lsa.2015.16.

摘要

Abstract

Male Lawes's Parotia

a bird of paradise

use the highly directional reflection of the structurally colored

brilliant-silvery occipital feathers in their courtship display. As in other birds

the structural coloration is produced by ordered melanin pigmentation. The barbules of the Parotia's occipital feathers

with thickness ~3 µm

contain 6–7 layers of densely packed melanin rodlets (diameter ~0.25 µm

length ~2 µm). The effectively ~0.2 µm thick melanin layers separated by ~0.2 µm thick keratin layers create a multilayer interference reflector. Reflectance measurements yielded peak wavelengths in the near-infrared at ~1.3 µm

i.e.

far outside the visible wavelength range. With the Jamin-Lebedeff interference microscopy method recently developed for pigmented media

we here determined the refractive index of the intact barbules. We thus derived the wavelength dependence of the refractive index of the barbules' melanin to be 1.7–1.8 in the visible wavelength range. Implementing the anatomical and refractive index data in an optical multilayer model

we calculated the barbules' reflectance

transmittance and absorptance spectra

thereby confirming measured spectra.

关键词

Keywords

bird of paradiseinterference reflectoriridescenceJamin-Lebedeff microscopymultilayer

references

Schmidt WJ. Wie entstehen die Schillerfarben der Federn?Naturwiss1952;39: 313–318..

Durrer H. Schillerfarben der Vogelfeder als Evolutionsproblem.Denkschr Schweiz Naturforsch Ges1977;91: 1–127..

Prum RO. Anatomy, physics, and evolution of avian structural colors. In: Hill GE, McGraw KJ, editors.Bird Coloration. Vol. Ⅰ, Mechanisms and Measurements. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 2006. p295–353.

Nakamura E, Yoshioka S, Kinoshita S. Structural color of rock dove's neck feather.J Phys Soc Jpn2008;77: 124801..

Stavenga DG, Leertouwer HL, Marshall NJ, Osorio D. Dramatic colour changes in a bird of paradise caused by uniquely structured breast feather barbules.Proc R Soc B2011;278: 2098–2104..

Wilts BD, Michielsen K, De Raedt H, Stavenga DG. Sparkling feather reflections of a bird-of-paradise explained by finite-difference time-domain modeling.Proc Natl Acad Sci USA2014;111: 4363–4368..

Pruett-Jones SG, Pruett-Jones MA. Sexual selection through female choice in Lawes' Parotia, a lek-mating bird of paradise.Evolution1990;44: 486–501..

Frith CB, Beehler BM.The Birds of Paradise. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1998.

Scholes E. Structure and composition of the courtship phenotype in the bird of paradiseParotia lawesii(Aves: Paradisaeidae).Zoology2008;111: 260–278..

Laman T, Scholes E.Birds of Paradise: Revealing the World's Most Extraordinary Birds. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society; 2012.

Leertouwer HL, Wilts BD, Stavenga DG. Refractive index and dispersion of butterfly scale chitin and bird keratin measured by interference microscopy.Opt Express2011;19: 24061–24066..

Stavenga DG, Leertouwer HL, Wilts BD. Quantifying the refractive index dispersion of a pigmented biological tissue using Jamin-Lebedeff interference microscopy.Light Sci Appl2013;2: e100; doi: 10.1038/lsa.2013.56..

Stavenga DG, Leertouwer HL, Hariyama T, De Raedt HA, Wilts BD. Sexual dichromatism of the damselflyCalopteryx japonicacaused by a melanin–chitin multilayer in the male wing veins.PloS ONE2012;7: e49743..

Stavenga DG, Wilts BD, Leertouwer HL, Hariyama T. Polarized iridescence of the multilayered elytra of the Japanese jewel beetle,Chrysochroa fulgidissima.Philos Trans R Soc B2011;366: 709–723..

McGraw KJ. Mechanics of melanin-based coloration. In: Hill GE, McGraw KJ, editors.Bird Coloration. Vol. Ⅰ, Mechanisms and Measurements. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; 2006. p243–295.

Land MF. The physics and biology of animal reflectors.Progr Biophys Mol Biol1972;24: 75–106..

Brink DJ, van der Berg NG. Structural colours from the feathers of the birdBostrychia hagedash.J Phys D: Appl Phys2004;37: 813–818..

Shawkey MD, Hauber ME, Estep LK, Hill GE. Evolutionary transitions and mechanisms of matte and iridescent plumage coloration in grackles and allies (Icteridae).J R Soc Interface2006;3: 777–786..

Stavenga DG. Thin film and multilayer optics cause structural colors of many insects and birds.Mater Today Proc2014;1S: 109–121..

浏览量

Downloads

CSCD

文章被引用时，请邮件提醒。

Submit

工具集

关联资源

暂无数据