Tiny glass frogs can transform into transparent at night by concealing about 90% of their red blood cells.
According to a study published Thursday in the journal Science, the colored patches are hidden away inside the frog’s liver, which can conceal the cells.
During the day, these little frogs might be found hanging beneath tree leaves. Their green-colored shapes don’t create shadows at that point, making them mostly undetectable to potential predators.
However, once they wake up, the frogs look more reddish-brown in tone.
‘When they’re transparent, it’s for their safety,’ said Junjie Yao, a Duke University biomedical engineer and research co-author. They can actively dodge predators when they are awake, but when they are asleep and most vulnerable, ‘they have adapted to remain hidden.’
Scientists employed light and ultrasound imaging technologies to discover a startling fact: frogs can ‘concentrate,’ or hide, over 90% of their red blood cells in their liver while they sleep.
Otherwise, the circulating blood would reveal them. Yao also mentioned that frogs may shrink and crush the majority of their internal organs together.
The discovery ‘beautifully explains’ how ‘glass frogs conceal blood in the liver to maintain transparency,’ according to Juan Manuel Guayasamin, a frog scientist from the University San Francisco in Quito, Ecuador, who was not involved in the study.
How they’re able to accomplish this feat is still somewhat mysterious.
Most animals would die if they had very little blood circulating oxygen for several hours – and concentrating blood so tightly would result in lethal clotting. The frogs, on the other hand, are able to survive.
Researchers believe that future studies on the species could yield information for the development of anti-blood clotting medications.
‘Transparency is super rare in nature, and in land animals, it’s essentially unheard of outside of the glass frog,’ Oxford University biologist Richard Whitem, who was not involved in the study, said.
Some translucent organisms include fish, shrimp, jellyfish, worms, and insects, none of which move vast amounts of red blood through their bodies.
‘It’s just this really amazing, dynamic form of camouflage,’ said White.
Source: https://ghiennaunuong
