Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/22/platypuses-theyre-venomous-they-sweat-milk-and-turns-out-they-glow-in-the-dark-too.html
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“Fluorescent under UV light” is not the same as “glow in the dark”
Dark imples the absence of light. UV is light, just not visible to humans.
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What’s more, they have evolved to avoid capture by quietly slipping away while biologists argue over their plural form.
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Pedant here. The four species of echidna (aka spiny anteaters) also lay eggs.
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Obligatory: 'Straya, fuck yeah!
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They are just evidence that God does, after all, have a sense of humor.
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Given this excellent question:
As of yet, it’s unclear why they glow in the dark. Researchers think it might help camouflage the platypus from other UV-sensitive nocturnal predators (ravers?) or prey by absorbing UV light instead of reflecting it.
Here’s a decent topic for a doctorate in Biology: eye lenses are capsules of proteins. In most mammals* the proteins in the lens absorb in the UV blocking the ability to perceive any UV distinct scenes. So, does platypus evolution having devoted significant metabolic effort to becoming UV distinct then pass up the ability to perceive this distinction (for, i dunno, mating opportunity discovery), or are their eye lens proteins also altered to allow UV permissibility?
(*yes, a platypus is still a mammal despite all the efforts to become an ‘independent’)
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Thank you. It always bugs me when people confuse bioluminescence and biofluorescence, which happens all. the. time.
Bioluminescence is when an organism produces its own light and thus can actually “glow in the dark.” You see this rarely - a few insects like fireflies, some marine animals and bacteria, some fungi. Biofluorescence is when an organism acts like a “black light poster,” i.e. it “glows” only under a (black) light (i.e. there’s a protein that absorbs UV light and re-emits it as visible light). That platypus is biofluorescent. (As are a number of organisms, including everything genetically modified to have the green fluorescent protein, common in research as it’s a useful marker.)
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If there’s pastry involved then it’s Platypie.
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Is a Platypie venomous or poisonous?
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Piesonous, surely?
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If there’s math involved it’s Platyπ.
Isn’t “pieson” just Strine for “poison”?
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That’s the Yorkshire reply to “What’s for dinner?”
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Echidna species also in the Monotreme order of egg-laying mammals.
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But they do look good on the dance floor.
They have peculiar reproductive organs too.
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Sigh. This has come up a lot recently. If plural is in dispute, -podes is mandated.
Platypodes.
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…sometimes get high.
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Venomous. They have a stinger on their hind legs they can use to paralyze fish.
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So you’re saying that the plural is not in dispute?
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