Amazing Animals Melanistic,Melanism is the excessive prevalence of dark pigment in the skin and its appendages, and is the opposite of albinism. The word "melanism" comes from the Greek word "Melas", which stands for black pigment. Pseudo-melanism, which is also called "abundizm" is another version of pigmentation, which is characterized by dark spots or bands of considerable width in animals with spotted or striped color covers.We offer a small selection of melanistic animals.