[jdmcnugent]

Fox squirrel bones also glow under UV, it was the subject of my senior research elective. I remember freezing then crushing up a bunch of squirrel bones, doing some extractions, pumping it through the hplc machine and found it to be from porphyrin accumulation and some error in hemoglobin metabolism. Then I graduated before it was published .... end of story.

[zeristor]

Interesting. Isn’t this how evolution works, some metabolic pathway changes, if that change is a benefit in some way, then that gives it an edge.

The Science Versus podcast looked at the Platypus, with the hypothesis that this was a deep seated trait from deep history in the origins of mammals.

The thing is I’d guess all mammals are more closely related to squirrels than to the platypus.

Hence I have thought that mice, cats, cows, etc, etc, etc would glow.

The angle in the podcast was that this was for twilight animals. So do bats glow too? Or is it all about echolocation with them?