Researchers Discover Many Sea Creatures Are Biofluorescent Including Some Sharks and Rays

Posted on January 25, 2014

Researchers led by scientists from the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) have discovered many sea creatures are biofluorescent including sharks, eels, rays and many fish. The researchers identified over 180 species that glow in a wide range of colors and patterns. The study was published here in PLoS One.

John Sparks, a curator in the Museum's Department of Ichthyology and co-lead author of the study, said in a statement, "We've long known about biofluorescence underwater in organisms like corals, jellyfish, and even in land animals like butterflies and parrots, but fish biofluorescence has been reported in only a few research publications. This paper is the first to look at the wide distribution of biofluorescence across fishes, and it opens up a number of new research areas."

The researchers shared the following videos showing the numerous glowing sea creatures. Take a look:

The above image shows some of the biofluorescent marine creatures discovered. Here is a list of the creatures pictured above:

A) swell shark (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum)
B) ray (Urobatis jamaicensis)
C) sole (Soleichthys heterorhinos)
D) flathead (Cociella hutchinsi)
E) lizardfish (Saurida gracilis)
F) frogfish (Antennarius maculatus)
G) stonefish (Synanceia verrucosa)
H) false moray eel (Kaupichthys brachychirus)
I) Chlopsidae (Kaupichthys nuchalis)
J) pipefish (Corythoichthys haematopterus)
K) sand stargazer (Gillellus uranidea)
L) goby (Eviota sp.)
M) Gobiidae (Eviota atriventris)
N) surgeonfish (Acanthurus coeruleus, larval)
O) threadfin bream (Scolopsis bilineata)

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