SoylentNews

takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Why Do Some Lizards Have Green Blood? [npr.org]

A study [sciencemag.org] [open, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao5017] [DX [doi.org]] 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 [lsu.edu], 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 [amnh.org], a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Also at New Scientist [newscientist.com] and The Atlantic [theatlantic.com].

Original Submission