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After checking with the museum staff, the team went down to the basement, found the platypus cabinet, and turned on the special lights. “And sure enough,” said Dr. Olson. Eventually they were able to examine three platypuses: a male and a female at the Field Museum and another male from the University of Nebraska State Museum. They all gave off the same cold glow.
So did a platypus killed on the street, discovered by a blacklight-wielding mycologist in north-east Australia this summer. Despite the grim circumstances of the discovery, “we were thrilled to hear that it was verified in a wild specimen,” said Dr. Olson.
So why should a platypus be fluorescent?
“We don’t really know,” said Dr. Olson.
Other examples of the Lite Brite life form have a clear purpose. Bioluminescence, for example, helps ocean creatures attract prey and find themselves in the depths. And hummingbirds get information from ultraviolet hues that reflect some flowers.
The fluorescence, however, is a little more opaque. Because it’s a natural property of some materials, “just finding the fluorescence doesn’t mean it has a particular purpose,” said Sönke Johnsen, a sensory biologist at Duke University who wasn’t involved in the study. Instead, he said, that glow could be accidental – “just something that’s there because it’s there.”
It is not known whether platypuses can perceive UV rays or fluorescence, especially in natural light. One theory is that by absorbing and transforming UV light rather than reflecting it, platypuses can hide better from UV-sensitive predators.
But that’s just a hypothesis, said Dr. Olson: “Our main goal is to document this trait,” in the hope that future research will shed more light. For now, his group plans to strategically investigate other nocturnal mammals to see if they can add them to their list.
They may have already opened some other lockers in the museum. “Stay tuned,” he said.
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