After seeing this example , I thought I’d start a thread for people to share examples or info about UV fluorescence in Nature. I don’t think there’s been a general thread for this before, but please let me know if there’s an old one I didn’t find via search. I’ll start it off with one of my favorite…

Another interesting UVIVF observation is a juvenile green anole (Anoles carolinensis). Only the juveniles glow blue, but adults don’t glow at all. No one knows why neither… Here is the observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/94805108 [anole] [anole 2]

[image] pufferchung: Only the juveniles glow blue, but adults don’t glow at all. No one knows why neither… in your observation, you made a comment that the blue of the anole in the photo was actually more of green. that’s similar to the rats that were captured as blue but which i’m sure were …

Very interesting! Thank you so much for the information! Too bad it’s winter now, all the green anoles in my backyard disappeared. I’ll try to get some UVIVF pictures of green anole next year. :slightly_smiling_face:

I’ve edited my post to show the wavelength.

I’ve got some Bulla genus shells here that also glow. I’ll take a photo when I’ve found them but my 6yr old’s museum seems to have most of my collection on loan at the moment. I’m not sure if fossils count as nature but have a look at this video showing the effects of UV light on fossil shells (abo…

Yes, I remember seeing this observation a couple of years ago. Shed anole skin does show as pretty “bright” white under UV light (similarly to what a lot of other whites do). I’ve used UV ID tags on anoles a fair amount but only on adults and never seen any dramatic UV responses (a couple of dots he…

I mostly use my UV light to find arachnids, especially small harvestmen there are a couple species which I mostly only see when looking with a UV light. One of my fave non-arachnid examples is this thornfish. [thornuv] [thornnorm] Kaihua also seems extremly glowy compared to other flowers in t…

[image] teellbee: I once caught ringworm when volunteering at a small pet rescue. Did you upload the observation? [image] pisum: shows the wide range of colors that tryptophan metabolites can fluoresce But do the fluorescent colors, themselves, have a biological function in mammals? L…

[image] pisum: here’s a video that sort of shows that happening: https://youtu.be/aJh5bosgFQQ?t=187 . i think the phenomenon is called the Kautsky effect. it would be interesting to ask students to develop hypotheses for why it happens. Thank you, for your insights and advice. I just got a U…

As most of you already know, UV light can harmful (especially to eyes and skin). For reference, here is snippet about UV wave length harm chart from Lawrence Berkeley Lab: https://ehs.lbl.gov/resource/documents/radiation-protection/non-ionizing-radiation/ultraviolet-radiation/ Unlike the skin, th…

UV Fluorescence in Nature

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UV Fluorescence in Nature

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