Scientists say research into a frog that turns itself mostly transparent while sleeping could advance medical understanding of dangerous blood clotting, a common serious condition in humans.
According to the BBC, scientists have long known about the glass frog but did not understand how it made itself see-through.
Now research has discovered that the frog is able to pool blood in its body without being negatively affected by clots.
The glass frog – which is about the size of a marshmallow – spends its days sleeping on bright green leaves in the Tropics. In order to escape the attention of predators, the creature turns itself up to 61% transparent, disguising itself on the leaf.
Now findings by Jesse Delia, a researcher at the Museum of Natural History in New York, and Carlos Taboada at Duke University in the US have uncovered how the glass frogs perform this very unusual function.
By shining different wavelengths of light through the animals while active and sleeping, the scientists measured their opacity. They discovered that the creatures pool blood into their liver.
Delia said: ‘They somehow pack most of the red blood cells in the liver, so they’re removed from the blood plasma. They’re still circulating plasma… but they do it somehow without triggering a massive clot.’
Taboada explained that the frog was still able to clot blood when necessary, for example when injured.
This ability to selectively pool and clot blood is the creature’s ‘superpower’, he said, and could open doors to a better understanding of blood clotting more generally.
[Image: Narupon Promvichai from Pixabay]