A unifying presentation of photopigment spectra

Insect retinal pigments: Spectral characteristics and physiological functions

“…The absorbance spectrum crucially depends on the interaction of the chromophore with specific amino acids in the opsin (Hargrave and McDowell, 1992;Chang et al, 1995). Curiously, the shape of the main absorbance band remains identical when plotted as a function of logwavelength (MacNichol, 1986;Stavenga et al, 1993).…”

Optimal mechanisms for finding and selecting mates: how threespine stickleback ( Gasterosteus aculeatus ) should encode male throat colors

“…The peak absorbance used for normalization was the maximum of the best fit Gaussian to data points 20 nm to either side of the estimated absorbance maximum of the alpha band. The wavelength of peak absorption (λ max ) of the smoothed, normalized visual pigment absorbance spectrum was obtained using the method of Mansfield as presented by MacNichol (1986). The templates used were those of Lipetz and Cronin (1988).…”

High sensitivity to short wavelengths in a lizard and implications for understanding the evolution of visual systems in lizards

“…visual pigments), each acceptable spectrum was normalized by estimating a spectral maximum using the eye and fitting a Gaussian function to the data points 20 nm either side of this wavelength. l max was then obtained using the method of Mansfield [35] as presented by MacNichol [36] using templates from Lipitz & Cronin [37]. Both A 1 and A 2 pigment templates were employed to see which produced the best fit.…”