A group of scientists led by Jesse Delia, one of the researchers at the US National Museum of Natural History, and Carlos Taboada from Duke University, conducted a scientific study on glass frogs, which take on a 61 percent transparent appearance for camouflage while sleeping.
Active and dormant glass frogs were exposed to different wavelengths of light to measure their transparency. It was found that frogs collect 89 percent of their red blood cells to the liver while they sleep, become transparent, and then re-circulate the pool of blood collected in the liver.
HOW IS BLOOD COLLECTED IN A CENTER WITHOUT CLOTHING?
Scientists say that this accumulation of blood in one place leads to potentially dangerous blood clots in the veins and arteries of living things; however, he emphasized that glass frogs store their blood in the liver without clotting, and that their blood clots when necessary, for example when they are injured.
“Transparency is difficult to achieve in vertebrates because their circulatory systems are filled with red blood cells that strongly attenuate light. Here we document how glass frogs overcome this challenge by hiding these cells from view,” said the study, published Dec. 22 in a science journal.
HOPE IT TRIGGERS NEW RESEARCH FOR HUMAN HEALTH
“This is the first in a series of studies documenting the physiology of vertebrate transparency, and we hope it will spur biomedical studies to transform the extraordinary physiology of these frogs into new targets for human health and medicine,” said Jesse Delia of the research.