Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Dark coloration of the skin, hair, fur, or feathers because of a high concentration of melanin.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In physiology, an undue development of coloring material in the skin and its appendages: the opposite of
albinism ; specifically, in zoology, the abnormal development of black or dark pigment in the pelage of a mammal or the plumage of a bird.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun An undue development of dark-colored pigment in the skin or its appendages; -- the opposite of
albinism . - noun (Med.) A disease; black jaundice. See
Melæna . - noun (Ethnol.) The character of having a high degree of pigmentation, as shown in dark skin, eyes, and hair.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
congenital excess ofmelanin pigmentation in the skin, hair, feathers and/or eyes; the condition of being melano
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a condition characterized by abnormal deposits of melanin (especially in the skin)
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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In cases of this type, melanism is a product of an interaction between genetic factors and the environment.
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The idea that Majerus overturned Kettlewell's experiments and his explanation for melanism is a horrifying distortion of Majerus's actual views and writings, propagated by a combination of overhyped news reports and creationist propaganda.
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Similar to Ecoregion 22k, some species of rodents and reptiles found here have developed abnormally dark coloration, called melanism, for camouflage against the dark lava.
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At some early point of my mothers pregnancy with me she made the decision to marry her fiance, and to lie to everyone about who the father of her un-born child was ... she achieved this by claiming that I had been afflicted with a skin-disease called "melanism".
Obama: Did I Mention the Money? Belford, Tom 2008
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Labels: canine, melanism posted by Chad Arment @ 1: 05 AM
Archive 2008-03-01 2008
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Mutations occurred randomly, some of which conferred increased melanism.
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Majerus argues strongly in his book that industrial melanism in the peppered moth had a point origin by mutation in the 1800s.
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If you definition excludes the peppered moth melanism mutation, fine, but what excludes all of those new genes?
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In heterothermic (cold-blooded) invertebrates, hairiness and melanism (dark pigmentation) enable them to warm up in the summer season.
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Mutations occurred randomly, some of which conferred increased melanism.
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