Have you heard of Jazz Hand? The toes of these bats glow.
When ultraviolet (UV) light hits the hairy toes of the Mexican free flying fox, the toes glow. That glow is called photoluminescence. It occurs when the hair on your toes absorbs ultraviolet rays that are invisible to the naked eye. The hair then re-emits that energy as light in blue-green wavelengths that we can see.
Scientists are discovering more and more animals that can glow in this way. wasp nest, platypus, Momonga and Tardigrade Everyone does it. However, most of these animals’ entire bodies glow under ultraviolet light. Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis), just the toes.
Researchers discovered toe glow by accident. They were trying to use luminescent powder to track bats in Mexico.
“We failed in that,” says Fernando Gual Suarez. He is a biologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. But while using a UV flashlight to look for traces of the powder, the team discovered glow-in-the-dark toes.
“Is that normal? Is this what your feet usually look like?” Gual Suarez remembers another scientist asking.
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Scientists already knew that this species’ toes were strange.
These bats, and their related bat relatives, have “what we call ‘spoon-shaped setae’ along the outer edge” of some of their toes, says Nancy Simmons. She is a bat expert at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. She did not participate in the new work. “No one knew why. [the bats] That’s why they have these bristles in the first place,” Simmons says.
But that is These hairs glow under UV light.
Gual Suarez’s team shared their new discovery on August 8th. mammal biology. This is the first time that a luminescent structure has been reported in a living bat.
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Researchers found similarly bright fluorescent hairs in 25 live Mexican free-fox bats. They came from two sites. The same glowing fur appeared on other bats captured more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) north.
The research team also examined dead bats kept in museums for research. The hair on their toes did not fluoresce. However, when exposed to ultraviolet light, its entire body glowed a dull green color. Researchers say that’s probably due to the chemicals used to preserve it. It may also be due to other physical changes as the specimen ages.
The discovery shows that scientists would have missed the toe glow “if they had used museum specimens” instead of live bats, says Linda Reinhold. She is a zoologist at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia. She calls the work of Gual-Suarez and his colleagues “good science.”
It is unclear what purpose the toe glow serves. Scientists don’t even know if bats can see light. And since bats are nocturnal, they are likely to encounter ultraviolet light primarily at dusk, dawn, and under moonlight.
This species lives in colonies containing millions of bats. Such large swarms must coordinate their movements in the dark over thousands of kilometers. Researchers say it would make sense if the glowing fur played a role in nocturnal communication.
“We need to test it in the lab,” says ecologist Rodrigo MedellÃn. He is also a co-author at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. His team is thinking of capturing bats and shaving their legs. They were then able to test whether this had an effect on animals.
“This is just scratching the surface of a very deep and long iceberg that no one knows anything about,” he says of the mysterious glowing toes.
Source: www.snexplores.org
