[HN Gopher] Flying squirrels glow pink thanks to fluorescence
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Flying squirrels glow pink thanks to fluorescence
Author : zeristor
Score : 34 points
Date : 2020-11-07 12:19 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nationalgeographic.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nationalgeographic.com)
| carapace wrote:
| Pink Banana
| https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Pink+banana&t=ffcm&atb=v60-1&iar=i...
|
| Pink Fairy Armadillo
| https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=Pink+Fairy+Armadillo&atb=v6...
|
| Pink Dolphin (Two kinds, in the Amazon and around Hong Kong)
|
| https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Amazon+river+dolphin&t=ffcm&atb=v6...
|
| https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Pink+Dolphin+hong+kong&t=ffcm&atb=...
|
| And, of course, the pink flamingo.
| https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Pink+flamingo&t=ffcm&atb=v60-1&iar...
|
| (O_o)
|
| (^_^)
| markdown wrote:
| Ali G on pink flamingos
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JegJVyK9zsM
| 01100011 wrote:
| I don't think flying squirrels are the only fluorescent animal. I
| recently picked up a 3W, 365nm UV light with a visible light
| filter. I brought it along on our nightly dog walk to play with
| it and noticed my Yorkie's hair glowed quite a bit(light yellow
| IIRC).
|
| I highly recommend picking up a real UV light with a visible
| light filter if all you've ever used are the cheap blacklights
| that glow purple. You'll never look at your bathroom the same way
| again.
| zeristor wrote:
| Indeed, I listened to a recent Science Versus podcast about how
| the Platypus is fluorescent, prompted by finding that squirrels
| glow.
|
| The 6th November podcast is all about that, they didn't have HN
| in mind since I can't link to a page for the podcast yet:
| https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/episodes
|
| Transcript is here:
| https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTFNJ2VoWUAhCgKM...
| xwdv wrote:
| Not sure where to buy one I don't see it on Amazon.
| 01100011 wrote:
| Search for 365nm UV flashlight. I got the Alonefire one,
| which claims to be 10W but is really 3W. That's fine for what
| I need and it was cheap so I went with it.
| rurp wrote:
| They aren't mammals but scorpions glow brilliantly under a
| blacklight.
| meekrohprocess wrote:
| Makes you wonder how much of life "happens" in the UV and
| infrared spectrums that we can't see.
|
| Does this let squirrels recognize each other in a dark forest
| without alerting predators? If so, did the predators adapt to
| that? It doesn't sound too uncommon from the other comments, but
| how much do the fluorescing wavelengths change? Is this another
| dimension of camoflauge and/or advertisement that we literally
| don't see?
|
| Or is it just one of those weird things?
| Alex3917 wrote:
| Flying squirrels need to eat truffles as part of their diet, so
| maybe the truffles make the squirrels glow pink as part of
| their reproductive strategy. Since truffles live underground,
| they can't reproduce unless some animal digs them up and eats
| them, so it would make sense to try to confer some sort of
| social status to the animals that are good at finding them.
| pvaldes wrote:
| For me there is a problem here in the fact that both, platypus
| and squirrel are museum skins.
|
| I'm missing a critical discussion explaining if this fluorescence
| is natural, (and can be natural perfectly) or due to the the
| chemical products used to preserve the specimens. Those studies
| are lacking of a control group
| zepearl wrote:
| > _"One evening," says Anich, "he heard the chirp of a flying
| squirrel at a bird feeder, pointed the flashlight at it, and
| was amazed to see pink fluorescence."_
| undersuit wrote:
| Scroll down past the fold and you see a picture of a live
| flying squirrel also with fluorescent fur.
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| Just when you thought the flying squirrel couldn't remind you any
| more of a platypus https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24966094
| (Biofluorescence in the Platypus)
| martinknapic wrote:
| top!
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