rhamphotheca:Why Do Mysterious Lizards Have Green Blood?by Carrie ArnoldIt’s not a trick of th
rhamphotheca:Why Do Mysterious Lizards Have Green Blood?by Carrie ArnoldIt’s not a trick of the imagination or a penchant for food coloring, Prasinohaema skinks living on the island of New Guinea actually have green blood, bones, and tissue—and one scientist is trying to figure out why.Louisiana State University biologist and National Geographic explorer Christopher Austin first became interested in these odd skinks in graduate school, when he read a 1969 paper in Science about a strange group of lizards with green blood.“It immediately captivated my attention. I noticed that no one had really worked on these lizards since then to figure out the what and the why of the green blood,” said Austin, who studied the lizards for his Ph.D. at the University of Texas, Austin.The skinks are found almost exclusively on the island of Papua New Guinea, one of the world’s biodiversity hot spots. (One species can also be found in the Solomon Islands.) When Austin began studying the animals in Papua New Guinea, he realized they have “incredibly high concentrations of the bile pigment biliverdin,” he said…(read more: National Geo)Photo by Christopher Austin, LSU Museum of Natural Science -- source link