Color, to most of us, is a familiar and vivid experience: three primary hues combining in countless ways to paint the world around us. But for a select few in the natural world, this experience is only a fraction of what’s perceptible. Some women have an extraordinary biological feature known as tetrachromacy, which allows them to see color that transcends the ordinary. This feature is encoded in their genetics in a way that men cannot experience!
While tetrachromacy is naturally found in a wide range of birds, fish, and reptiles, its subtle expression in humans has only recently begun to be explored, and it continues to challenge our understanding of what it means to “see” the world. How do humans and animals have this ability? How does biology, psychology, optics, and art affect the colors that people are able to see? Click through this gallery to find out.