4/29/2023 0 Comments Platypus black light![]() So, it was intriguing to see that animals that were such distant relatives also had biofluorescent fur. It's thought that monotremes branched off the marsupial-placental lineage more than 150 million years ago. "But we were also interested in seeing how deep in the mammalian tree the trait of biofluorescent fur went. "It was a mix of serendipity and curiosity that led us to shine a UV light on the platypuses at the Field Museum," said lead author Professor Paula Spaeth Anich, Associate Professor of Biology and Natural Resources at Northland College. And with colleagues at Northland College and Colorado State University, they are working on a project to further explore the phenomenon across the mammalian family tree. The researchers would now like to work with an Australian team to observe biofluorescence in wild animals. The researchers suggest this may be a way for platypuses to see and interact with each other in the dark. It may be that these mammals-and possibly others-developed biofluorescence to adapt to low light conditions. immediately started putting their specimens under UV light and discovered. Like the marsupial opossum and the placental flying squirrel, platypuses are most active during the night and at dawn and dusk. discovered that platypus fur is biofluorescent and glows under UV light. The fur of the platypus absorbs UV (wavelengths of 200-400 nanometers) and re-emits visible light (of 500-600 nanometers), making it fluoresce. But under UV light they appeared green or cyan. In visible light, the fur of all three platypus specimens was uniformly brown. They studied three museum platypus specimens: a female and a male from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and another male specimen from the University of Nebraska State Museum. While confirming this field observation with preserved museum specimens, the researchers decided to examine the platypuses in the next drawer along too. One of the paper's authors discovered pink biofluorescence in flying squirrels by accident while conducting a night survey for lichens, a finding reported in an earlier paper. Two mammals-the opossum and the flying squirrel-are already known to have fur that biofluoresces under under ultraviolet (UV) light. Accessed 16/11/20.The research article "Biofluorescence in the platypus ( Ornithorhynchus anatinus)" was published in De Gruyter's international journal Mammalia. Accessed 16/11/20.īradford, Alina, Platypus Facts. Accessed 16/11/20.īell, Rachel, Things that Glow Pink in the Night: Why do Some Animals have Fluorescent Colouration Under Ultraviolet Light?. Accessed 16/11/20.Īnich, P, Anthony S, Carlson M, Gunnelson, A, Kohler A, Martin J, Olson E, Biofluorescence in the Platypus. The New York Times, Platypus Glow Under Backlight. Dentition, as illustrated in Knights Sketches in Natural History. ![]() We’ve taken the info for this post from a number of sources: In 2020, research in biofluorescence revealed the platypus is one of the monotremes that glow when exposed to black light in a bluish-green colour. It’s just another fascinating fact about one of Australia’s favourite native animals. It depends on whether other members of their species can see these colours or not (and therefore are using it to communicate) – we humans can’t see light on this spectrum just with our eyes alone, but that doesn’t mean that our furry friends don’t see things in technicolour all the time. But with mammals, scientists aren’t quite sure. What purpose does it serve for these mammals to be able to glow?įor other animals there are a variety of reasons – it could be to communicate with others, or to attract prey, or a mate, or it could be to blend in with their bright surroundings (such as flowers). 'The fur of the platypus mostly appeared dark/purple as expected under the UV light, but some of it turned moss green, although not brightly so,' wrote Linda Reinhold in the societys. What scientists aren’t quite sure about is why. It could be on their skin, scales, feathers, or in this case fur. Bioflourescence on the other hand (which is what we’re talking about here with the platypus) is when the animal can absorb UV light, and then re-emit it (but not produce it themselves). Image: New York Times Are platypuses bioluminescent or biofluorescent?īioluminescence is when animals produce light themselves via chemical reactions (common in a lot of creatures in the deep ocean, and in many birds).
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