It's our annual updates episode! Thanks to Kelsey and Torin for the extra information about ultraviolet light, and thanks to Caleb for suggesting we learn more about the dingo!
Further reading:
At Least 125 Species of Mammals Glow under Ultraviolet Light, New Study Reveals
DNA has revealed the origin of this giant ‘mystery’ gecko
Bootlace Worm: Earth’s Longest Animal Produces Powerful Toxin
Non-stop flight: 4,200 km transatlantic flight of the Painted Lady butterfly mapped
Gigantopithecus Went Extinct between 295,000 and 215,000 Years Ago, New Study Says
First-Ever Terror Bird Footprints Discovered
Last surviving woolly mammoths were inbred but not doomed to extinction
Australian Dingoes Are Early Offshoot of Modern Breed Dogs, Study Shows
A (badly) stuffed lava bear:
Show transcript:
Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw.
This week we have our annual updates episode, and we’ll also learn about a mystery animal called the lava bear! As usual, a reminder that I don’t try to update everything we’ve ever talked about. That would be impossible. I just pick new information that is especially interesting.
After our episode about animals and ultraviolet light, I got a great email from Kelsey and Torin with some information I didn’t know. I got permission to quote the email, which I think you’ll find really interesting too:
“You said humans can’t see UV light, which is true, however humans can detect UV light via neuropsin (a non-visual photoreceptor in the retina). These detectors allow the body to be signaled that it’s time to do things like make sex-steroid hormones, neurotransmitters, etc. (Spending too much time indoors results in non-optimal hormone levels, lowered neurotransmitter production, etc.)
“Humans also have melanopsin detectors in the retina and skin. Melanopsin detectors respond to blue light. Artificial light (LEDs, flourescents, etc) after dark entering the eye or shining on the skin is sensed by these proteins as mid-day daylight. This results in an immediate drop in melatonin production when it should be increasing getting closer to bedtime.”
And that’s why you shouldn’t look at your phone at night, which I am super bad about doing.
Our first update is related to ultraviolet light. A study published in October of 2023 examined hundreds of mammals to see if any part of their bodies glowed in ultraviolet light, called fluorescence. More than 125 of them did! It was more common in nocturnal animals that lived on land or in trees, and light-colored fur and skin was more likely to fluoresce than darker fur or skin. The white stripes of a mountain zebra, for example, fluoresce while the black stripes don’t.
The study was only carried out on animals that were already dead, many of them taxidermied. To rule out that the fluorescence had something to do with chemicals used in taxidermy, they also tested specimens that had been flash-frozen after dying, and the results were the same. The study concluded that ultraviolet fluorescence is actually really common in mammals, we just didn’t know because we can’t see it. The glow is typically faint and may appear pink, green, or blue.
