Brilliant angle-independent structural colours preserved in weevil scales from the Swiss Pleistocene

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dc.contributor.authorMcDonald, Luke T.
dc.contributor.authorNarayanan, Suresh
dc.contributor.authorSandy, Alec
dc.contributor.authorSaranathan, Vinodkumar
dc.contributor.authorMcNamara, Maria E.
dc.contributor.funderEuropean Research Councilen
dc.contributor.funderU.S. Department of Energyen
dc.contributor.funderHorizon 2020en
dc.contributor.funderYale-NUS Collegeen
dc.date.accessioned2021-09-09T12:26:45Z
dc.date.available2021-09-09T12:26:45Z
dc.date.issued2020-04-15
dc.date.updated2021-09-07T10:34:10Z
dc.description.abstractExtant weevils exhibit a remarkable colour palette that ranges from muted monochromatic tones to rainbow-like iridescence, with the most vibrant colours produced by three-dimensional photonic nanostructures housed within cuticular scales. Although the optical properties of these nanostructures are well understood, their evolutionary history is not fully resolved, in part due to a poor knowledge of their fossil record. Here, we report three-dimensional photonic nanostructures preserved in brightly coloured scales of two weevils, belonging to the genus Phyllobius or Polydrusus, from the Pleistocene (16–10 ka) of Switzerland. The scales display vibrant blue, green and yellow hues that resemble those of extant Phyllobius/Polydrusus. Scanning electron microscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering analyses reveal that the subfossil scales possess a single-diamond photonic crystal nanostructure. In extant Phyllobius/Polydrusus, the near-angle-independent blue and green hues function primarily in crypsis. The preservation of far-field, angle-independent structural colours in the Swiss subfossil weevils and their likely function in substrate matching confirm the importance of investigating fossil and subfossil photonic nanostructures to understand the evolutionary origins and diversification of colours and associated behaviours (e.g. crypsis) in insects.en
dc.description.sponsorshipUS Department of Energy (Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (contract DE AC02 06CH11357) ); Yale-NUS (College start-up funds)en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.articleid20200063en
dc.identifier.citationMcDonald, L. T., Narayanan, S., Sandy, A., Saranathan, V. and McNamara, M. E. (2020) 'Brilliant angle-independent structural colours preserved in weevil scales from the Swiss Pleistocene', Biology Letters, 16(4), 20200063 (6 pp). doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2020.0063en
dc.identifier.doi10.1098/rsbl.2020.0063en
dc.identifier.endpage6en
dc.identifier.issn1744-9561
dc.identifier.journaltitleBiology Lettersen
dc.identifier.startpage1en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/11859
dc.identifier.volume16en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherThe Royal Societyen
dc.relation.projectinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020::ERC::ERC-STG/637691/EU/Animal coloration through deep time: evolutionary novelty, homology and taphonomy/ANICOLEVOen
dc.relation.urihttps://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0063
dc.rights© 2020 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.en
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectPhotonic nanostructuresen
dc.subjectStructural coloursen
dc.subjectFossil coloursen
dc.subjectPleistoceneen
dc.subjectWeevilsen
dc.titleBrilliant angle-independent structural colours preserved in weevil scales from the Swiss Pleistoceneen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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