BUENOS AIRES, (MILLAT/APP/AFP) – The
first naturally fluorescent frog was discovered recently in
Argentina — almost by chance, a member of the team of researchers
told AFP Thursday.
Argentine and Brazilian scientists at the
Bernardino Rivadaiva Natural Sciences Museum made the
discovery while studying the metabolic origin of pigments in
a tree-frog species common to South America.
Under normal light the frog’s translucent skin is
a muted yellowish-brown color with red dots, but when the
scientists shone an ultraviolet light on it, it turned a
celestial green.
According to one of them, Carlos Taboada, the case is
“the first scientific record of a fluorescent frog.”
“We were very excited,” said his fellow researcher
Julian Faivovich. “It was quite disconcerting.”
He said the discovery “radically modifies what is
known about fluorescence in terrestrial environments, allowing
the discovery of new fluorescent compounds that may have
scientific or technological applications.”
It also “generates new questions about visual
communication in amphibians,” he said.
The team studied some 200 more examples to ensure the
phenomenon was not due to the frog’s captivity, and detected
the fluorescent properties in all the specimens.
Maria Lagorio — an independent researcher and
expert in fluorescence, who the research team contacted after
the discovery — told AFP that the trait is common in aquatic
species and seen in some insects, “but has never
been scientifically reported in amphibians.”
The finding was recently published in Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences.