A shark that glows in the dark?That’s just swell! The swell shark (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum) got that name because of its odd defense method. It ingests a lot of water in a hurry to swell its body up, making it too big and round for predators to eat! But the way these fish recognize each other is even weirder. They harness bioluminescence to give themselves a pattern of green glowing spots, which neither humans nor other fish can see. But the swell shark can see and recognize other swell sharks because they developed a special yellow lens in their eyes. The Tennessee Aquarium has swell sharks, and can see their glow by shining blue light on them and looking through yellow glasses, which mimic the way the sharks see. Or they can just shine a blacklight on the sharks.
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The Tennessee Aquarium recently had a breakthrough in that they hatched a swell shark from an egg, the first captive facility to do so. The baby shark already has its own green glowing dots. Read about the swell shark and see videos of its bioluminescence at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Tennessee Aquarium)
Source: neatorama