A red octopus that drifts through deep waters off the eastern United States shines in a novel way: Its suckers flash on and off.

In 1997, Widder brought a live, foot-long specimen from the Gulf of Maine back to a lab. When the researchers turned off the lights, the suckers glowed blue-green, emitting the most light at 470 nanometers, a wavelength that travels well underwater. "It's kind of a twinkling effect," Widder says.

Such a glimpse into the evolutionary history of a bioluminescent structure holds special interest because of its rarity, notes Widder. Tracing histories of light organs has proved difficult because "there's no fossil record for bioluminescence bioluminescence (b+'Ml'm-ns`Yns), production of light by living organisms...... .," she laments. NOAA - http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

Runtime: 02:03 Added: November 15, 2009

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Category: Creation Science

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Bioluminescence Red Octopus Jellyfish fish fungi bacteria