Data from: The evolution of colour pattern complexity: selection for conspicuousness favours contrasting within-body colour combinations in lizards

Many animals display complex colour patterns that comprise several adjacent, often contrasting colour patches. Combining patches of complementary colours increases the overall conspicuousness of the complex pattern, enhancing signal detection. Therefore, selection for conspicuousness may act not only on the design of single colour patches, but also on their combination. Contrasting long- and short-wavelength colour patches are located on the ventral and lateral surfaces of many lacertid lizards. As the combination of long- and short-wavelength-based colours generates local chromatic contrast, we hypothesized that selection may favour the co-occurrence of lateral and ventral contrasting patches, resulting in complex colour patterns that maximize the overall conspicuousness of the signal. To test this hypothesis, we performed a comparative phylogenetic study using a categorical colour classification based on spectral data and descriptive information on lacertid coloration collected from the literature. Our results demonstrate that conspicuous ventral (long-wavelength-based) and lateral (short-wavelength-based) colour patches co-occur throughout the lacertid phylogeny more often than expected by chance, especially in the subfamily Lacertini. These results suggest that selection promotes the evolution of the complex pattern rather than the acquisition of a single conspicuous colour patch, possibly due to the increased conspicuousness caused by the combination of colours with contrasting spectral properties.诸多动物展现出由多个相邻且往往呈对比色的色块构成的复杂体色模式。将互补色的色块进行组合，可提升该复杂体色模式的整体醒目度，进而强化信号的可检测性。因此，针对醒目度的选择压力，不仅会作用于单个色块的设计，还会影响其组合方式。 诸多蜥蜴科（Lacertidae）蜥蜴的腹面与侧面分布着长波与短波对比色的色块。由于基于长波与短波的色彩组合会产生局部色彩对比，我们提出假设：选择压力或许会青睐侧面与腹面对比色块的共现，最终形成可最大化信号整体醒目度的复杂体色模式。 为验证该假设，我们开展了一项比较系统发育研究：研究采用基于光谱数据的分类体色分类法，并结合从文献中收集的蜥蜴科体色描述信息。研究结果显示，在整个蜥蜴科系统发育树中，具备醒目腹面（基于长波）与侧面（基于短波）色块的类群共现的概率远高于随机预期，尤其在蜥蜴亚科（Lacertini）中更为显著。上述结果表明，选择压力推动的是复杂体色模式的演化，而非单个醒目色块的获得，这可能源于具有对比光谱特性的色彩组合所带来的醒目度提升。