“Sea urchins have a class of highly durable pigments all to themselves—echinochromes. Appearance alone can’t tell you which colors on an urchin’s test come from these unique molecules; a lot is unknown about these pigments, including their function.”

Does this material look familiar? Feathers are made of the protein keratin, which is the same protein that makes up human hair and fingernails.

“Thousands of photographs are automatically stitched together to create these amazing images. Repeating patterns are tricky; with so many possibilities, it’s much harder for the computer to connect the images perfectly.”

Most of the reds and yellows we see in birds come from a group of pigments called carotenoids, which birds get primarily from their diet. When these hues are bright, they may signal that an animal is fit and well fed.

These tiny barbs hook together like Velcro, creating the net-like surface of the feather. These interlocking structures make feathers light, strong, and flexible.

“Stripes and spots form when pigment-making cells are turned off and on as a feather grows.”

Beneath this set of hardened forewings is a concealed pair of large, thin wings, which the shining leaf chafer beetle spreads open to take flight.

The golden scarab beetle’s shimmering hue isn’t made with pigments. Instead, tiny structures in the exoskeleton reflect particular wavelengths of light that we perceive as gold.

“All of these shining leaf chafer beetles were collected on the same day. A scientist stumbled upon thousands of these beetles that were feasting on fruit on the Amazonian forest floor.”

The sharply pointed rear end of this beetle is actually the male’s reproductive organ. Look closely—can you tell which of the other beetles displayed here are male?