Now researchers think they know why. Several years back, during a fishing expedition in the Florida Keys, biologist Lori Schweikert came face to face with an unusual quick-change act. She caught a pointy-snouted reef fish known as a hogfish and placed it on her boat's deck. However, when she later
showing that hogfish carry a gene for a light-sensitive protein called opsin that is activated in their skin and that this gene is different from the opsin genes found in their eyes.
“When we found it in hogfish, I looked at Sönke and said: Why have a light detector in the skin?” said Schweikert, now an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Up close, a hogfish’s skin looks like a pointillist painting. Each dot of color is a specialized cell called a chromatophore containing granules of pigment that can be red, yellow, or black. It’s the movement of these pigment granules that changes the skin color. When the granules spread out across the cell, the color appears darker. When they cluster together into a tiny spot that’s hard to see, the cell becomes more transparent.
Seen through a microscope, a hogfish’s skin looks like a pointillist painting. Each dot of color is a specialized cell containing pigment granules that can be red, yellow, or black. The pigment granules can spread out or cluster tightly together within the cell, making the color appear darker or more transparent. Credit: Lori Schweikert, University of North Carolina Wilmington
“Just to be clear, we’re not arguing that hogfish skin functions like an eye,” Schweikert added. Eyes do more than merely detect light — they form images. “We don’t have any evidence to suggest that’s what’s happening in their skin,” Schweikert said.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
AUD/USD retreats and eyes 0.6400 on Fed hawkish comments, eyes on Powell speechThe Australian Dollar (AUD) erased Wednesday’s gains against the American Dollar (USD) on Thursday, as a ‘bearish-engulfing’ candlestick chart pattern
Read more »
Illegal fish species found in 4 Utah reservoirs, wildlife biologists sayUtah wildlife officials are reminding people to not dump pet fish or any other fish that doesn't belong in a specific body of water after finding illegal species in four reservoirs this year.
Read more »
Don't dump that fish, warns Utah DWRDon't ditch that fish: That's the message from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, reminding the public that it's both illegal and harmful to dump unwanted pet fish into local ponds.
Read more »
Jacksonville man buries fish in woods, arrested and charged with improper sized catch in SJCThe angler was charged with possession of over the bag limit of red drum, in possession of an out of slot red drum (improper size) and interference of an FWC officer.
Read more »
How To Find (& Catch) a Silver Salmon In PaliaFind that fish.
Read more »