Minn. scholars discover fluorescent amphibians
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Jennifer Lamb keeps three fluorescent amphibians in her office at St. Cloud State University.
Her three-legged amphiuma, a salamander, goes by Perry.
Matthew Davis, an associate biology professor and colleague, recently discovered Perry and many other amphibians can fluoresce. The animals absorb blue and ultraviolet light and re-emit neon green light.
That green glow is not obvious to the human eye.
Davis and Lamb, an assistant biology professor at St. Cloud State, used glasses with yellow lenses and special lights to conduct a survey of 32 species of amphibians in the past year. They looked at frogs, salamanders and worm-like, legless caecilians.
The lights and filters allowed the scholars to spot the animals’ biofluorescence. They surveyed animals in nature, in Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium and in pet stores.
“Every time we’re looking at something, we’re seeing something new or different,” Davis said.
They have garnered attention beyond academia, too.
“The broader interest has been gratifying and neat,” Lamb said.
Lamb and Davis’ report was published late February in the journal Scientific Reports, and it broke new ground. It was known that fish could fluoresce, but this is the first extensive look at amphibians.
In Lamb’s lab, a few floors below her office, she keeps a few specimens: two native-Minnesotan Eastern Tiger Salamanders named Hot Dog and Bun. A group of middle school girls named the amphibians, which bear yellow spots to the naked – human – eye. The spots glow green under blue light.
And all 32 species examined in Lamb and Davis’ study lit up under the blue light, which resembles twilight or conditions within a shaded forest.
Their work raises new questions and opens the door for additional discoveries.
The St. Cloud State professors’ work has been featured in The New York Times, Wired, Scientific American and other science magazines.
“I’m really proud of the work they’re doing,” said Maureen Tubbiola, interim associate dean in the College of Science and Engineering and previous chairwoman of the biology department. “This has wide-ranging implications for what we can see.”