Researchers have figured out how glass frogs keep their skin so clear.
They’re called glass frogs for a reason. Flip the paperclip-size amphibians over, and you’ll see their bones, innards, and beating heart through a translucent belly.
In nature, transparency is largely reserved for fully aquatic creatures such as eel larvae and gelatinous jellyfish. Terrestrial animals and those that straddle land and water have a tougher time going clear because light reflects differently through air than water. To figure out how glass frogs overcome this hurdle, researchers used highly calibrated cameras to capture the transparency of Fleischmann’s glass frogs , which congregate near streams throughout Central America. At night, when the amphibians breed and feed, they’re opaque. But during the day, when they snooze on leaves, most of their bodies, save for the lime green hue of their backs, turn transparent.
To determine where the blood cells went, Taboada and his colleagues utilized a technique called photoacoustic imaging, which maps the ultrasonic waves produced when red blood cells absorb light. During the day, blood vessels in the frogs’ livers were brimming with red blood cells, swelling the size of the organ by about 40%.
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