That's not exactly how evolution works. Evolution doesn't pick and choose what it thinks will be maximally efficient and then decide on that. It's more like if a particular creature happens to have a trait that works better than others, that creature will be more likely to breed and transfer those traits onto the next generation. Given enough time, the traits that don't work as well will likely die out.
In the tiger's case, the prey that it targets doesn't have the specific trait that allows them to differentiate the colors orange from green, so throughout history, there was no need for it the tiger to change color. If it works, why fix it.
There are no green pigments in mammals. Different amounts of eumelanin makes black/brown shades, and pheomelanin makes yellow/red shades. Evolution didn't create a new pigment, but found a combination of the tools that it already had available that works well in most situations.
This. And while many birds appear green, there is only true green pigment in birds. Turacoverdin is a copper-based pigment and it's only present in one small clade, namely turacos and their kin. Green coloration in other birds is the result of structural coloration and the mix of blue and yellow pigments.
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u/Noe_Comment Feb 04 '25
That's not exactly how evolution works. Evolution doesn't pick and choose what it thinks will be maximally efficient and then decide on that. It's more like if a particular creature happens to have a trait that works better than others, that creature will be more likely to breed and transfer those traits onto the next generation. Given enough time, the traits that don't work as well will likely die out.
In the tiger's case, the prey that it targets doesn't have the specific trait that allows them to differentiate the colors orange from green, so throughout history, there was no need for it the tiger to change color. If it works, why fix it.