Green blood in lizards probably evolved four times
Summary:
Green blood1 is weird enough. But now the first genealogical tree tracing green blood in New Guinea’s Prasinohaema lizards is suggesting something even odder. Green blood looks as if it arose four separate times in the island’s lizards. These lizards do have crimson red blood cells2, but that color is overwhelmed by a green pigment. To find out how this trait evolved, segments of DNA3 were compared and the evolutionary history of these lizards was reconstructed.
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Publication date:
16/5/18
Scientific field:
Animals, Evolution, Physiology
Glossary:
- Green blood: A genus of skinks whose blood color is caused by an excess of the bile pigment biliverdin.
- Red blood cells: One of the cells of the blood
- DNA: An extremely long macromolecule that is the main component of chromosomes and is the material that transfers genetic characteristics in all life forms.
Analysis comment:
This article talks about lizards, specifically, the skink lizard family in New Guinea. These lizards are green-blooded and, after a large number of experiments, it has been discovered that the color green may have emerged four times independently among some members of the skink lizard family in New Guinea. It is important to add that these scientists continue to investigate the complete sequences of the building blocks of the lizard's DNA and hope to detect clearer evolutionary clues than they have.
I think this discovery is very interesting because the fact that exist animals with green blood is something very strange and peculiar.
This discovery, though it may not seem important, it is. Because it contradicts something that was previously believed, that is, it contradicts the fact that green-blooded reptiles have inherited it from only a one specie.
This new family tree suggests that the dye may have emerged four times independently among some members of the skink lizard family in New Guinea.
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