Some millipedes and fungi produce their own light. But in the ocean’s murky depths, it’s an entire different glowing story.
Nearly 1,000 to 1,500 feet underneath the ocean surface, there is a place known as the deep scattering layer, which may have so much bioluminescence that the sea appears as if it is twinkling with blue stars.
Matt Davis, an ichthyologist at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, said that the more you go deeper and deeper in the water, the area become less and less penetrable to sunlight. The sole light visible to many of the animals is produced by other organisms.
In the deep sea, the nearly magical capability of creatures to chemically form their own light serves many purposes. Bioluminescence is used by fish to communicate with one another, to ensure their silhouettes are out of the sight of low-lurking predators, as a way to attract prey and even as a defense device.
The shining tubeshoulder fish received its name as it squirts a blob of bioluminescent goo out of its shoulder on getting attacked, with the help of flash of light to baffle its predators when it flees into the darkness.
A latest study in PLOS One suggested that bioluminescence is so beneficial for underwater creatures that it resulted into independent evolution at least 27 times in marine fish solely.
Davis, who led the work, said, “When we see something that’s repeatedly evolving over and over again, that’s a good clue that it is of biological importance”.
Earlier bioluminescence studies have discovered that an organism’s ability to make its own light evolved 40 times throughout the tree of life. The latest study, entirely focused on ray-finned fish, said that the evolutionary adaptation occurred much more times than that.
A report published in LA Times revealed, "About 1,000 to 1,500 feet beneath the ocean surface, in a region known as the deep scattering layer, there can be so much bioluminescence that the sea looks like it is twinkling with blue stars."
“As you get deeper and deeper in the water column, it becomes less and less penetrable to sunlight,” said Matt Davis, an ichthyologist at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. “The only light many of these animals see is made from other organisms.”
The almost magical ability of creatures to chemically create their own light serves a lot of purposes in the deep sea. Fish use bioluminescence to communicate with one another, to hide their silhouettes from low-lurking predators, as a way to lure prey and even as a defense mechanism.
"During the Cretaceous period, while flowers and tyrant dinosaurs were spreading over the land, and pterosaurs and birds were taking over the skies, in the oceans, fish were starting to glow," according to a news report published by National Geographic.
Despite the obvious diversity of bioluminescent fish, no one knew exactly how often these animals evolved their self-mad light. “We thought it might be a dozen or so just by eyeballing a list,” says Matthew Davis from St. Cloud State University, “but the actual number was considerably higher.”
Together with John Sparks and Leo Smith, Davis built a family tree of ray-finned fish—the group that includes some 99 percent of fish species. By marking out the bioluminescent lineages, they report Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE that these animals independently evolved their own light at least 27 times.
According to a report in News Week by Meghan Kuhr, "One of the best parts of summer on the East Coast or in the Midwestern United States is spending your nights gazing up at a dark sky, an open jar in one hand and a lid in the other, searching for little balls of light to pounce at and capture. Fireflies radiate a fuzzy glow thanks to bioluminescence, a chemical reaction that takes place in living organisms, producing and emitting visible light. Though fireflies are probably the most familiar bioluminescent creature, the phenomenon is fairly common among bacteria and fungi, as well as in the deep depths of the ocean, where almost all organisms glow and use it for communication, feeding and reproduction."
This barbeled dragonfish is a small bioluminescent deep-sea fish with a long protrusion attached to its chin, known as a barbel, which is tipped with a light-producing organ called a photophore. It also has large photophores below its eyes used to illuminate prey and potentially communicate, as well as some along the sides of its body for camouflage.
This study was also the first to investigate exactly how bioluminescence has evolved in vertebrates through phylogenetic analysis, a means of estimating evolutionary relationships. Sparks, along with his colleagues W. Leo Smith from the University of Kansas and Matthew Davis from St. Cloud University, found that lineages of fish with the ability to produce light have evolved the genes that help create a light-producing reaction, which allows bioluminescence to happen.
By: Jeanne Rife (NH Voice).
Photo: Pinterest.
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