The Australian fauna is known to be some of the most dangerous and volatile on the planet. Spiders, snakes, and sharks abound, not to mention the jellyfish and a whole host of creepy crawlies. But less stress - if thinking about them creates feelings of doom and gloom, maybe this will lighten your mood.
In October, a group of American scientists in Mammalia published a study showing that the humble Australian platypus glows in the dark. In light of this discovery, scientists at the Western Australian Museum conducted further tests to discover that even more Australian mammals and marsupials were glowing.
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According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, after reading the original study, curator of mammalogy at the Western Australian Museum Kenny Travouillon borrowed a UV light to verify the validity of the claims himself.
"We borrowed it and turned off the lights in the collection and looked around for what was glowing and what wasn't," Travouillon told ABC. "The first thing we checked was obviously the platypus. We lit the lights and they lit up too, it confirmed the research."
The team then examined other specimens to see if the glowing feature extended to other marsupials. The experiment was successful again after the pouches, bilbies and wombats were illuminated.
As for Why They glow in the dark, we are still not 100% sure. Travouillon speculates that it might simply be a matter of identifying other members of their species in the dark, since the majority of the glowing specimens were nocturnal.
"The upside is likely that they can see and get close to their species from a distance because they know that animal is safe to walk towards," he told ABC.
Whatever the reason, shine on you crazy mammals.
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