Nature
On the surface, it looks like a typical lizard, but the tree-dwelling skink of the genus Prasinohaema is anything but.
Its blood, bones, muscles, and even its tongue and mucous membranes are green.
This color is explained by a high concentration of biliverdin, a pigment resulting from the breakdown of red blood cells.
In humans, this molecule, in excessive amounts, causes jaundice and can be fatal.
In this particular skink, the concentrations are 40 times higher than those of a patient with this disease, and yet it thrives.
To understand this mystery, a team of researchers from Brigham Young University undertook genome sequencing of this skink using a museum specimen. They identified a gene potentially coding for a highly altered version of a protein called alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), which could explain why this skink survives with its green blood.
The researchers explain:
Meanwhile, we still don't know why green blood flows in the veins of this lizard.
Source : msn.com
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