mice blend in on Florida's beaches

Love the cover of today's issue of Science - such an intelligent look:



Haven't read the paper yet, but according to the cover caption "beach mice (Peromyscus polionotus) have recently colonized the white sandy beaches of Florida's Gulf Coast, where they have evolved a novel coat color pattern that camouflages them from predators." A paper in this issue shows "how small changes in the level and location of expression of a single gene in the mouse embryo cause large changes in adult color pattern." Photo: Joel Sartore/joelsartore.com