There’s a reason fashion designers look to animal prints for inspiration. Creatures have evolved a dizzying array of patterns: stripes, spots, diamonds, chevrons, hexagons and even mazelike designs.

Some patterns arise simply or randomly, but others develop via complex, precise interactions of pattern-generating systems. Their beauty aside, the intricacies of these systems are inspiring the ...

The zebrafish, a small fresh water fish, owes its name to a striking pattern of blue stripes alternating with golden stripes. Three major pigment cell types, black cells, reflective silvery cells, and ...

Nature is full of many patterned animals, from the stripes on zebras, spots on leopards, to the intricate details on sea creatures. Researchers have studied for a long time the biological explanation ...

Stripe patterns are commonly seen in nature—for instance, birds and fish move in coordinated flocks and schools, fingerprints form unique designs, and zebras can be identified by their distinctive ...

Stripes are common in our lives. It’s a pretty basic pattern, and easy to take for granted. As an applied mathematician who studies how patterns form in nature, though, I am wowed by the striped ...

When tigers stalk their prey, usually in the murky light of dusk or dawn, they are nearly invisible. Whether they live in grasslands, forests or jungles, wild tigers have deep orange coats with dark ...

Coat patterns such as a zebra’s stripes afford animals the ability to blend into their environment and among other individuals with the same patterns. Predators can’t see camouflaged animals or target ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Sara Tabin is a science contributor writing about animals. Scientists aren’t sure, but one theory, dubbed the “motion dazzle ...