Frogs have layers: a comparative histological study of colour polymorphism in Oophaga poison frogs
Vasiliki Mantzana Oikonomaki, Mats Johannes Wiborg, Giselle Tamayo-Castillo, Roberto Ibáñez, Ariel Rodríguez, Heike Pröhl · 2026
Read Frogs have layers: a comparative histological study of colour polymorphism in Oophaga poison frogs by Vasiliki Mantzana Oikonomaki, Mats Johannes Wiborg, Giselle Tamayo-Castillo, Roberto Ibáñez, Ariel Rodríguez, Heike Pröhl (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13589513.txt.
Description
Vasiliki Mantzana Oikonomaki and five co-authors study frog skin color in two thousand twenty-six. Poison frogs of the genus Oophaga come in striking red and green morphs, sometimes within one species. Skin color comes from a layered unit of pigment and structural cells, but how the layers vary was poorly known.
The team compared skin sections from red and green morphs of three species and matched them with color measurements. Two species showed more pigment-layer coverage in red morphs, while the third differed little between morphs. Reflectance data tracked the cell traits closely. The authors conclude that similar colors can arise by different cellular routes in these frogs.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Vasiliki Mantzana Oikonomaki, Mats Johannes Wiborg, Giselle Tamayo-Castillo, Roberto Ibáñez, Ariel Rodríguez, Heike Pröhl |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 49 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |