Re: blue!

> Indy wrote:
> > 
> > Beth!!!
> > 
> > Hiya! G'day! How are things down under?
> > 
> > Got a quick question for you: what kind of enviroment might there
> > be required for a species to evolve with blue pigment for their
> > skin/hides? I'm trying to think 'aliens' here ;-)  and suddenly
> > got inspired by the music video by Eiffel65 for their song "Blue".
> > 
> > Mk
> 
> Urrrrmmm......oops! This was supposed to go directly to Beth, NOT 
the
> entire list. 

Guess Beth already answered that one, but here are my ideas on that 
one:

1) An environment with blue plants. Blue skin would be a camouflage 
there. Blue plants could arguably evolve to more efficiently absorb
light 
from a sun whose light emission's peak is in the yellow part of the 
spektrum.

2) The alien males evolved the blue skin to impress their ladies (or 
vice versa). You can justify all kinds of outrageous designs with sexual

selection.

3) The blue skin pigment is there to help produce some kind of 
'vitamin' the aliens can't get otherwise.

4) Underwater, light blue is a not unreasonable camouflage.

5) In an desert environment without plants and 'blue' minerals on the 
surface, e.g.Cobalt ores.

6) The aliens are poisonous or otherwise very dangerous and bright blue 
is a warning signal colour in their world.

7) There are some posonous or otherwise dangerous beasts on the planet
and the aliens have copied this colour to scare off predators, even if 
they themselves are quite harmless.

Greetings
Karl Heinz