Monday, November 9, 2009

Hormonally Triggered Bioluminescence!

I just thought this was super cool.
This is the first ever, let me repeat that, FIRST EVER, case where scientists have found hormones to be the trigger for the bioluminescence of animals.

Scientists have found that the skin underneath the Velvet Belly Lantern Shark (Etmopterus spinax) that bioluminesces is triggered by various hormones such as melatonin and prolactin, with each hormone triggering a different type of glow.
Now the glowy part is super cool and all, but I think the best part is this:

"Finding a parallel pathway to bioluminescence — one that’s controlled by hormones, not nerves — strongly supports the notion that light-emitting powers have evolved multiple times in animals"

We may have made a scientific breakthrough in the study of evolution! Yahoo!

-Yuzo Yanagitsuru

1 comment:

The new Kevin (a.k.a Kevin Kwan) said...

Imagine if this happened with humans, lol.

There's no hiding some
emotions at that point.