In this episode of Science Detectives, we explore the rainbow of colours found across the animal kingdom.

The COSMOS Science Detectives podcast series finds and interrogates the experts to help you answer your burning questions.

Why do animals come in so many different colours and patterns?

The animal kingdom is awash with colour and pattern: from black and white striped zebras galloping across Africa, to the gloriously blue Ulysses butterflies, or the bright and splotchy poison dart frogs of the Americas.

Animal colouration spans the rainbow, but how do animals actually produce these dazzling displays? And what is their purpose?

In this episode of Science Detectives, Imma Perfetto, Cosmos magazine science writer, exposes animals’ true colours. She’s joined by Devi Stuart-Fox a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of Melbourne.

More about Science Detectives

Science can answer most of life’s big and little questions – but you don’t always have scientist on hand to explain their reasoning. Now you do, with a the Cosmos Science Detectives podcast finding the experts and interrogating them to help answer your burning inquiries.

The crack Cosmos team of newsroom science journalists will leave no stone unturned. They’ll open a case file; find evidence and witnesses; and give you the detail you need to close a case of “uncertainty”.

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