The world is still full of unexplained mysteries, and every day, more and more scientific and nature discoveries are baffling scientists everywhere. From new plant species to newly discovered animals, our planet still has countless secrets that are yet to be revealed.
Another recent discovery that amazed nature scientists everywhere is the discovery of the world's first luminous frog. This new frog species, called the South American polka dot tree frog, was found in Argentina. This is the first fluorescent amphibian ever.
The discovery was made by the researchers from Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum and the University of Buenos Aires when they exposed the frog into ultraviolet light. The frog emitted a pulsing glow of blue and green instead of a faint red, which was what the researchers initially expected.
According to Sputnik News, "Further research indicates the glow is created by three fluorescent molecules (hyloin-L1, hyloin-L2 and hyloin-G1) in the frog's lymph tissue, skin and glandular secretions - they contain a ring structure and a chain of hydrocarbons. These molecules are so far said to be unique among known fluorescent particles in animals - although similar molecular properties can be found in plants."
The polka dot tree frog is just 3 centimeters long and is most commonly found in the Amazon basin. It's not yet clear whether the frog's fluorescence properties is useful whatsoever, but the team behind this research is intent on discovering and studying more about the polka dot tree frog.
"There's very few frogs that have a feature that's not found in any other frogs. So it probably is a trait that's more widespread, but then the question becomes what are the ecological circumstances that would drive fluorescence? Is it only common in tree frogs? Or is it ever found in other ecological circumstances?" These are the questions asked by David Blackburn at the University of Florida in Gainesville about this new discovery.
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