5 replies to this topic

[DaveO]

These people have too much time to spare

https://www.abc.net....scence/12910820

Dave

[colinbm]

Oh dear, the fact that they have been dead for a long time & have been to the taxidermist ?
My nails glow under UV light & some body fluids....so I could be famous & have all these lovey lab chicks oohing over me.... ;-)

PS, I have a nice 5mm wart on my foot that flows extra brightly......surely that must help me find a mate in the dark of the primordial swamps.....

Edited by colinbm, 27 November 2020 - 06:47.

[Andy Perrin]

Heh. It does seem like they should check out some live animals before drawing conclusions.

[DaveO]

They should have done a literature survey before going live:

Fluorescence and coloration of grey hair
https://pubmed.ncbi....h.gov/19723161/

Dave

[JMC]

This cropped up on my Facebook feed last night DaveO (on one of the Tasmania pages).

Not hugely surprising that they fluoresce - lots of things do. Whether it is an intentional or beneficial adaption, I'm not sure of.

Slightly odd statement in the article - "It is possible that it is actually taking the ultraviolet light that is more prevalent at dusk and dawn, making it kind of disappear so that any predators that are keying in on ultraviolet light can't see the platypus because it is kind of cloaking itself."

I'm sorry, but that does not make sense to me at all. I really hope none of these researchers go around shining bright UV lights on live animals, without appreciating the damage they could cause.

[microbat52]

Im late to reading the article.

The article is absolutely dreadful but the paper is actually interesting.

The paper confirms that platipuses fur ( such as some other marsupials) fluoresces.

The hypothesis is that several crepuscular marsupials fur fluoresces as an adaptation to absorb and not reflect UV since predators might see reflected UV.