It absorbs blue light and then reflects it as a different color: green, red and even orange. To do all this is a turtle that lives near the Solomon Islands in the Pacific. According to the first reports, it could be the first biofluorescent reptile, able to emit a light, not simply to reflect it. But to do this it must be illuminated by a blue light
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Absorbs light blu and then reflects it as a different color: the green, red and also the Orange. To do all this is one turtle who lives near the Islands Solomon, in the Pacific. According to preliminary reports, it could be the first reptile biofluorescent, that is, able to emit a light, not simply to reflect it. But to do this it must be illuminated by a blue light.
Not to be confused with the bioluminescenza, in which an organism produces its own light through a chemical reaction or through bacteria. On the contrary, biofluorescence is a passive characteristic of the animal, which cannot activate it when it wants. These creatures have the characteristic of absorbing UV light and re-emitting it through different colors.
Discovered by biologist and National Geographic explorer David Gruber of the City University of New York, the rare turtle was immortalized by a special camera.
“I've been studying turtles for a long time and I don't think anyone has ever seen one like this,” said Alexander Gaos, director of the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative.
Right now, scientists are unsure of the phenomenon behind the biofluorescence in turtle. After playing with the light for a few minutes, the turtle started swimming away and the scientists did not follow it as it is one of the most endangered and protected species in the world.
Gruber revealed the National Geographic that the red on the turtles could be caused by the algae probably growing on their shell, giving rise to a kind of camouflage strategy. It looked like a "bright red and green spaceship," the scientist joked.
The next step will be to find out if the turtles other habitats also have the same ability, and try to understand how they manage to emit light from a chemical point of view. It is possible that they eat a biofluorescent compound.
About 180 species of fish and other marine creatures have this ability to glow red and green when struck by ultraviolet light.
Almost magic.
Francesca Mancuso
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