Biologists usually pursue the adaptationist paradigm in trying to explain the functional significance of animal coloration. Here I collate instances in which coloration may be a poor match in the context of background matching, Batesian mimicry, aposematism, and colour polymorphisms. This can occur because of trade-offs with other functions, relaxed selection from predation, or colour trait neutrality. Also, mechanistic, pleiotropic and chance genetic effects can all result in a poor match to the background environment or to signaling efficiently. While biologists implicitly recognise these constraints placed on adaptive coloration, they rarely explicitly acknowledge the heterodox notion that coloration might be under weak selection or no selection at all. Unfortunately, it is difficult to show this definitively, as illustrated in an investigation into the function of colour polymorphisms in coconut crabs.

中文翻译：

---

当动物颜色不匹配时

生物学家在试图解释动物着色的功能意义时通常会遵循适应主义范式。在这里，我整理了在背景匹配、Batesian 拟态、aposematism 和颜色多态性的上下文中着色可能不匹配的实例。这可能是由于与其他功能的权衡、从捕食中轻松选择或颜色特征中性而发生的。此外，机械、多效性和偶然遗传效应都可能导致与背景环境或有效信号的匹配不佳。虽然生物学家隐含地认识到这些对适应性着色的限制，但他们很少明确承认着色可能处于弱选择或根本没有选择的异端观念。不幸的是，很难明确地表明这一点，