Turacin
Encyclopedia
Turacin is a naturally occurring red
pigment
that is 6% copper
complexed to uroporphyrin 111. Arthur Herbert Church discovered turacin in 1869.
It is found only in the bird
family
Musophagidae, the turaco
s. Other birds derive their red coloration from carotenoid
s (bright and orange-reds) or phaeomelanins (rusty and brownish-reds).
It is often assumed that this coloration will wash out when the birds are bathing or after heavy rains, but this is true only if the water used for bathing happens to be very alkaline.
Red
Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked eye...
pigment
Pigment
A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...
that is 6% copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
complexed to uroporphyrin 111. Arthur Herbert Church discovered turacin in 1869.
It is found only in the bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Musophagidae, the turaco
Turaco
The turacos make up the bird family Musophagidae , which includes plantain-eaters and go-away-birds. In southern Africa both turacos and go-away-birds are commonly known as louries. They are semi-zygodactylous - the fourth toe can be switched back and forth...
s. Other birds derive their red coloration from carotenoid
Carotenoid
Carotenoids are tetraterpenoid organic pigments that are naturally occurring in the chloroplasts and chromoplasts of plants and some other photosynthetic organisms like algae, some bacteria, and some types of fungus. Carotenoids can be synthesized fats and other basic organic metabolic building...
s (bright and orange-reds) or phaeomelanins (rusty and brownish-reds).
It is often assumed that this coloration will wash out when the birds are bathing or after heavy rains, but this is true only if the water used for bathing happens to be very alkaline.
See also
- PsittacofulvinPsittacofulvinPsittacofulvin pigments cause the bright-red, orange, and yellow colours of parrots. Colourful feathers with high levels of psittacofulvin resist feather-degrading Bacillus licheniformis better than white ones....
, a brightly colored red and yellow pigment unique to parrotParrotParrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
s - TuracoverdinTuracoverdinTuracoverdin is a unique copper uroporphyrin pigment responsible for the bright green coloration of several birds of the family Musophagidae, most notably the turaco. It is chemically related to turacin, a red pigment also found almost exclusively in turacos...
, green pigment unique to turacos