Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Thursday May 17 2018, @01:28AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-many-times-did-it-evolve-on-Vulcan? dept.

Why Do Some Lizards Have Green Blood?

A study [open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao5017] [DX] published Tuesday suggests seems that this lime-green blood has evolved independently several times in lizards.

Scientists are now trying to understand how these lizards might benefit from blood that's green. The answer could provide new insights into human illnesses like jaundice and malaria.

The weird blood has been found in skinks that live in New Guinea, an island off of Australia, and its bright color is striking. "There's so much green pigment in the blood that it overshadows the brilliant crimson coloration of red blood cells," says Chris Austin, a biologist at Louisiana State University who has studied these lizards for decades. "The bones are green, the muscles are green, the tissues are green, the tongue and mucosal lining is green."

All that green comes from high levels of biliverdin, a toxic waste product made during the body's normal breakdown of red blood cells. In humans, high levels of a similar bile pigment called bilirubin make people sick with jaundice, but the lizards seem unaffected.

"I find it just absolutely remarkable that you've got this group of vertebrates, these lizards, that have a level of biliverdin that would kill a human being, and yet they're out catching insects and living lizard lives," says Susan Perkins, a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

[...] Austin, Perkins, and their colleague Zachary Rodriguez decided to create a kind of lizard family tree by studying the DNA of 51 Australasian skink species, including six species that have green blood.

[...] What the researchers found [...] suggests that the ancestors of all of the lizards had red blood, and that green blood then evolved independently four times, in separate lineages.

Also at New Scientist and The Atlantic.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 17 2018, @04:15AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 17 2018, @04:15AM (#680621)

    Isn't it wonderful how evolution has so many answers to one question? (oxygen transportation)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemocyanin [wikipedia.org]

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday May 17 2018, @08:42AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 17 2018, @08:42AM (#680661) Journal

    Surely you jest!
    The appropriate link to use is https://soylentnews.org/~hemocyanin/ [soylentnews.org]

    (now, mod me Informative - LARGE GRIN IN SMALL CAPS)

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday May 17 2018, @06:04PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 17 2018, @06:04PM (#680803) Journal

    Evolution could not possibly explain green, toxic blood.

    From TFA . . .

    "I find it just absolutely remarkable that you've got this group of vertebrates, these lizards, that have a level of biliverdin that would kill a human being, and yet they're out catching insects and living lizard lives,"

    Evolution supporter: Having green toxic blood could be explained as a mechanism to prevent other animals from eating you.

    Trump supporter: How so?

    Evolution supporter: When an animal eats you, they die because your blood is toxic to them.

    Trump supporter: But that one animal dying does not prevent another, and another, and another animal from eating members of your green toxic blooded species.

    Evolution supporter: Having green toxic blood doesn't protect you, individually. Indeed, you may get eaten, and then give your eater a toxic taco bellyache. But it selects for survival of members of eater species' to not eat your species.

    Trump supporter: But how would that work? And if Hillary had been elected, there would be a taco truck on every street corner, think of that danger!

    Evolution supporter: It would work because the members of eater species that eat you become less likely to successfully reproduce. Especially if they receive their Darwin Award prior to reproducing.

    Trump supporter: But what if the eater species already doesn't want to reproduce? They just want to grab 'em by the p🐈🐈🐈y and not have any of the responsibilities that come with offspring -- not that we want to offspring to encourage people to have responsibility.

    Evolution supporter: The members of the eater species that learn to eat other less toxic animals will be more successful at reproduction. Therefore, your green toxic blood does protect your species, and thus indirectly protects you. Even if it doesn't specifically protect you as an individual. Just as you could die from X after being vaccinated for X, but it simply becomes less (far less) likely.

    Trump supporter: But we don't want vaccinations, and we don't want evolution. So we should teach against both in schools, and appoint a secretary of education that would support such a policy. Evolution makes about as much sense as global warming or sex education.

    Evolution supporter: Then how do you explain Spock's green blood?

    Trump supporter: Well, you've got me there.

    (hint: copper, according to Dr. McCoy)

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.