Brown seems to be such a default colour for things in nature and in day to life. Why is it so common for things to be or turn this colour in contrast to the vast array of other colours around?
In: Earth Science
I’m posting to see the answers here, this is a interesting question.
I’m think you’re asking two questions – why is the Earth (dirt, rocks, etc) brownish and why is life often brown-ish.
I think both come down to chemistry, the earth contains a lot of Iron which loves to react with oxygen and from reddish/brown compounds. If you look at the material breakdown of Earth many of core compounds are going to reddish/brownish. Probably no interesting answer there past “these types of compounds look brown”, you could get a quantum mechanical answer explaining the how, but the why is “that’s just the way things are”.
As far as life goes, you have all sorts of competing trends. Brown makes a good camouflaged since the earth is brown, so any animal that’s trying to blend in adapts to being brownish. Sometimes you have color that provides a purpose, trees and plants and animals that have colors are usually deliberately colored. It’s either providing a warning, the color is related to chemistry for example photosynthesis, or the creature is trying to attract mates. Finally not every animal blends in with the earth, sharks are lighter on the bottom because they’re being contrasted from below to blend in with the sky, green tree frogs are blending in with leaves etc.
Ultimately, I think the answer is boring. Brown is just a natural color for the chemistry of earth and without a specific purpose, things will tend to be brownish.
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