In the dim twilight hours, many frogs may be capable of emitting a faint green or orange glow.
The findings “are a reminder to check our own perception as humans,” says Jennifer Lamb, a herpetologist at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota who was not involved with the research. “We are very visually dominant in terms of our senses. And other animals are too, but they might be experiencing that visual world differently than we are.”
Biofluorescence occurs in many types of creatures. It happens when an organism absorbs light at one wavelength, or color, and reemits it at a different wavelength with lower energy. Over the past several years, researchers have recognized the trait in a growing diversity of species, from the fur of flying squirrels and platypuses to the nests of certain wasps (SN: 11/6/20, SN: 9/2/21).
Fluorescence was first discovered in frogs in 2017. Since then, researchers have tested more amphibians for fluorescence, says Courtney Whitcher, an evolutionary biologist at Florida State University in Tallahassee. But investigations of frog biofluorescence have used just one or two light sources she says, usually violet or ultraviolet light.
2023-08-13 09:00:00
Article from www.sciencenews.org