LUSAKA: It was like a dazzling spacecraft, the scientist recalls.Beautifully striped, like an incandescent UFO gliding through the ocean floor, the hawksbill sea turtle was glowing — the first known instance of a reptile exhibiting biofluorescence, an ability to absorb the blue light of the water and emit it as a different color. In other biofluorescent animals, the gleaming result is often neon green, red, and orange.
Marine biologist David Gruber had been in the Solomon Islands in late July to film biofluorescence in the South Pacific, reports National Geographic. While searching for glowing coral reefs and small sharks, Gruber and his team instead encountered a luminous and very friendly turtle.
“Out of the blue, 40 minutes into the dive – it almost looks like a bright red and green spaceship – it came underneath the camera,” Dr. Gruber says in a video. “It just bumped into us…. Came in front of my lens and then hung out with us for five minutes.”
Ecstatic about his find, the marine biology professor at City University of New York explains that the only animal known to glow two colors is coral. Other sea creatures that glow through biofluorescence include sharks, sea horses, a number of fish, and tiny crustaceans called copepods.
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