Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Science
Related: About this forumPuffin beaks are fluorescent and we had no idea
?content=1A scientist in England has made an enlightening discovery about Atlantic puffins under a UV light, their bills glow like a freshly cracked glow stick.
"It was sort of discovered by accident," said Jamie Dunning, the ornithologist who first saw the beaks light up.
Dunning normally works with twites, another type of bird, but he had been wondering if puffins had Day-Glo beaks for a while, since crested auklets seabirds in the same family also have light-up bills.
more
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/puffin-beaks-flouresce-1.4607386
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
4 replies, 1558 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (3)
ReplyReply to this post
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Puffin beaks are fluorescent and we had no idea (Original Post)
n2doc
Apr 2018
OP
Wow, oh, wow. So danged mysterious. One has to wonder what that's all about! n/t
Judi Lynn
Apr 2018
#3
eppur_se_muova
(36,227 posts)1. Well, we should have suspected.
Damned hippie birds.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)2. I think of them more as ravers than hippies. n/t
Judi Lynn
(160,217 posts)3. Wow, oh, wow. So danged mysterious. One has to wonder what that's all about! n/t
hunter
(38,264 posts)4. Human color vision is a kludge.
Our small mammal ancestors lost two ancestral color receptors in the course of their evolution, possibly because they were nocturnal, night vision being more important than color vision.
We great apes got the equivalent of half a color back when one of these remaining receptors split into our "red" and "green."
But it's nothing like the rich color spectrum birds enjoy.
Most birds are tetrachromatic, possessing four types of cone cells each with a distinctive maximal absorption peak. In some birds, the maximal absorption peak of the cone cell responsible for the shortest wavelength extends to the ultraviolet (UV) range, making them UV-sensitive. In addition to that, the cones at bird's retina are arranged in a characteristic form of spatial distribution, known as hyperuniform distribution, which maximizes its light and color absorption. This form of spatial distributions are only observed as a result of some optimization process, which in this case can be described in terms of bird's evolutionary history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_vision
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_vision
A healthy puffin's beak is no doubt spectacular as seen by other puffins.