Scientists discover that "fluorescence is very common in mammals"

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Originally published at: Scientists discover that "fluorescence is very common in mammals" | Boing Boing

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(I do hope they use the right kinds of uv-flashlights and dont sterilise the ground with those.)

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I’m fluorescing right now!

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Why, yes. There are days I’m positively radiant, or so I’m told.

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UV flashlights are very handy for finding human and animal bones.

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I have been known to fluoresce a time or two back in my day.

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I know that :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:. cant quite tell if this was intented as a joke? anyways, I was in the smallprint talking about something like in the following;

and I guess its not first priority if some ground-bacteria gets killed while searching for human remains?

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Ah, back when I was an adolescent, I would always choose the ties and jackets for dances so I’d have the best fluorescence, even bringing a small black light shopping at thrift stores to figure out what had the best look in black light. Once I found a black-and-white check jacket that had an amazingly white fluorescence, the little white squares glaring a brilliant blue-white under black light. I wore that jacket until it just didn’t fit at all anymore, and I probably looked like a jackass wearing it, but I didn’t care. I at least had style, however warped.

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I would have naïvely guessed being nocturnal means fluorescence is unlikely to have a direct biological function – it only happens under UV light, and there’s not much of that at night. And the cases I know where fluorescence is known to be useful to the animals in question are things like parrots and butterflies that go out in the day, while for instance any benefit to scorpions is still unknown.

So it’s interesting that it’s more common in nocturnal mammals. I wonder if that supports some positive function, or just means it’s something to avoid during the day. Some fluorescent substances like porphyrins are also photosensitizers, turning UV into extra chemical damage.

For the record, aquatic mammals may be less likely to fluoresce but it is very common in marine animals like corals and fish. There it shows up not just under UV but blue light – and since once you get a few meters down all the ambient light is blue, even faint red or green fluorescence can stand out to an eye that’s sensitive to them (or help not stand out in a fluorescent reef).

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Or it just occurred at some point long ago and stayed on because it makes no difference whether it’s there or not. I.e., there was no gain whatsoever in getting rid of it.

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