![]() ![]() “These species, inhabiting three continents and a diverse array of ecosystems, represent the major lineages of Mammalia.” “Biofluorescence has now been observed in placental New World flying squirrels, marsupial New World opossums, and the monotreme platypus of Australia and Tasmania.” “The discovery of biofluorescence in the platypus adds a new dimension to our understanding of this trait in mammals,” they said. They 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.” “Like the marsupial opossum and the placental flying squirrel, platypuses are most active during the night and at dawn and dusk,” the researchers said. UV absorption is indicated by dark areas in the far right panel. Cyan to green biofluorescence of 500 nm is seen in the middle panels. The fur of the animals appeared uniformly brown under visible light and green or cyan under UV light, due to fluoresced wavelengths that peaked around 500 nm.Ī male platypus ( Ornithorhynchus anatinus) museum specimen collected from Tasmania, Australia, photographed under visible light and 385-395 nm UV light without and with a yellow camera lens filter. In the study, Professor Anich and colleagues examined three specimens of the platypus from Tasmania and New South Wales, Australia, housed in the Field Museum of Natural History and the University of Nebraska State Museum under visible and UV 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,” said Northland College’s Professor Paula Spaeth Anich, lead author on the study. Within mammals, marsupial opossums and placental flying squirrels are known to have fur that biofluoresces under UV light. This image is a digital reproduction of a painting by John Lewin of a platypus in 1808.īiofluorescence, in which short wavelengths of light are absorbed and longer wavelengths are re-emitted by living organisms, has been observed in a wide range of fishes, reptiles and amphibians and birds. ![]()
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