Hi Steemit family!

4 animals with bioluminescence

Today I bring you a special of the amazing animals that have chemical lighting, this phenomenon has captivated for many years to the scientific community that has been dedicated to studying the effect that has some species, I will begin this edition with 5 animals and in the week we will be discovering other species.
To get closer to these species is necessary to know that bioluminescence is the product of chemical reactions caused by a chemical substance called luciferin which in turn undergoes a rapid oxidation passing from chemical energy to light energy, this process can be found in a wide variety of organisms such as fungi, crustaceans, insects, fish, and jellyfish to name a few.

1 Panellus Stipticus Mushroom

It is a fungus that develops in North America, however, it has spread throughout the world, inhabits especially in woods in a state of decomposition. For hundreds of years, Asian people have collected the fungus to use as a torch in dark nights.

source

The fundamental objective of producing illumination is motivated so that the animals feel attracted by the light and when sniffing or rubbing they become transporting agents of the spores of the fungus that are taken to other places to continue reproducing, they emit light the 24 hours of the day being showier in the dark nights.

2 Rainbow Medusa

It is a species discovered relatively recently, was first seen in 2013 on beaches in Australia specifically on the island of Tasmania. Compared to other species of jellyfish has an average size that reaches 13 centimeters in length, is very sensitive to changes in its environment and only the rubbing with a boat or net is able to kill it immediately, as for its natural predators is very difficult to catch uses as a defense mechanism bioluminescence to blind their predators and thus escape.

source

3 Hawksbill turtle

It is rare to find reptiles that have the ability to produce light, although it is not really bioluminescence fluorescence which is the ability to reflect the light from some source in striking and strident colors. This beautiful turtle was discovered during filming of marine life made by national geographic in the fabulous corals of the Solomon Islands where the reflection of underwater light lamps return a beautiful image of green and red colors products of artificial lighting. Currently, the phenomenon is studied by science due to the rarity that represents the bioluminescence in reptiles.

source

Firefly squid

It is a species that despite being a small size comes to measure only 8 centimeters in length is able to produce bioluminescence thanks to some special organs that are located inside your body and have a photophore substance that produces a beautiful blue light that is distributed throughout the body. The only problem is that it is very difficult to see them because they live at depths of 1200 meters underwater, it is only possible to see them in their reproductive season where millions of firefly squid gather specifically in Toyama Bay.

source

This is the first of a series of publications dedicated to discovering animals that have the ability to produce chemical lighting, something that never ceases to surprise everyone including the scientific community that continues to try to decipher why these species evolved to such a point of producing lighting.

Thank you for reading

---

If you liked reading this article, feel free to FOLLOW ME, UPVOTE and RESTEEM! It's always appreciated =D. Thank you all for your support and see you soon for the news flamingirl's adventures!

Attention

This publication aims to provide educational and cultural content on the steemit platform, images downloaded from the Internet are the property of each artist or photographer, under no circumstances, this blog is commercially exploited with the sale of all or part of the material.