Description
The aposematic colouration of poison dart frogs (family Dendrobatidae) — the bright warning colours that communicate chemical toxicity to predators — is distributed through the skin in a precise arrangement of chromatophore cells of different types: xanthophores (yellow/orange pigment), iridophores (structural colour from guanine crystal arrays), and melanophores (black melanin pigment). This photograph, made at 6:1 reproduction of a captive-bred Dendrobates azureus with full CITES documentation, resolves the individual chromatophore cells of the dorsal skin surface — the blue structural colour of the iridophores and the black spots of the melanophore-dense boundary zones creating a micro-pattern of extraordinary precision and beauty.
