If you think you know everything about nature then you are in for a surprise. There is still lot more to discover and learn about. Every now and then human being come across different things that force them to think that there is still more to know and understand.
Recently a new glowing creature has been discovered by scientists in the Red Sea. These glowing creatures are living in the colonies as garlands of ‘fluorescent lanterns’ and emitting a green glow. Read below to believe yourself.
Glowing creatures were found in Saudi Arabia
These glowing creatures were found during the studies of the biodiversity of coral reefs of the archipelago Farasan in Saudi Arabia. Scientist used UV lights with yellow filters to examine the coral life.
The “fluorescent lanterns” they found out is just very much similar to hydro, but different from where they are found. In the Red Sea they are found forming colonies with miniature shells of gastropods Nassarius margaritifer of 20-35mm length glowing in green color.
During the daytime these glowing creatures bury themselves in the sediment. But at night they came out to hunt other invertebrates. This is how they survive.
According to Vyacheslav Ivanenko, Lomonosov Moscow State University:
“Sea hydroids, unlike hydrae, are often found in colonies and can branch off tiny jellyfish,”
“The unusual green glow of these hydrozoas (presumably, a new species of the genus Cytaeis, whose body length reaches 1.5mm) was revealed in the peristomal area of the body,”
According to the scientists, the glow that is being seen around the polyps is might be used to attract prey. There are some glowing creatures which have fluorescence on the tentacles or stalk. The maximum fluorescence emission of the new species of the genus Cytaeis is 518 nanometers.
Such creatures open the possibility of existing of other unknown glowing creatures in the world. These fluorescence seems to be very useful in identification of hardly recognizable species.
Image Source: Featured Image, Image1, Image2
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Rishi Gupta
Rishi Gupta is an Engineering Computer Science student. He holds 2 years of writing experience on different subjects like Technology and Social Media. Other than writing, he loves to travel and explore new places.
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