Abstract
Ontogenetic colour change in animals is an interesting evolutional
question, which has been studied by evolutionary biologist for decades.
However, the main challenge is how to measure the colour quantitively
and continuously in a full life cycle for lizards. We used the
spectrometer approach to measure the tail colour of Blue-tailed Skink
(Plestiodon elegans) from birth to sexual mature. The spectrometer
approach is simple, fast, and accurate depending on animals’ visual
sense, to measure the tail colour of skink. We showed a strong
relationship between colour indexes (values of L*, a*, b*) and growth
time of skink. Moreover, we found colour rhythms are different between
sexes, which may influenced by their unique behavior strategies between
sexes. Therefore, our study carried out a continuously measuring the
tail colour change from larva to adults to investigate the mechanism for
ontogenetic colour change in reptiles and to explain the potential
factors that driving the dichromatism between sexes in lizards.