Researchers have just found a fluorescent anemone deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Find out more about glowing sea creatures in this slideshow.
This glowing tube anemone, a relative of sea anemones, was found 500 metres beneath the waves in the Gulf of Mexico.
Image: Jörg
Wiedenmann
The tube anemone’s tentacles glow when they are hit by blue light – with red light they are switched off.
Image: Jörg
Wiedenmann
Most fluorescent marine creatures have been found in shallower water, for instance this tube anemone, from the Mediterranean Sea.
Image: Jörg Wiedenmann
Two colonies of cnidarians growing over each other glow in different colours: Zoanthus in red and in green. The animals can be often found on the rubble of coral reefs.
Image: Jörg Wiedenmann
Different species of coral, such as these on the Great Barrier Reef, fluoresce in different ways. In many (seen here at the bottom of the image) the green fluorescence is restricted to the mouth region of the polyps.
Image: Jörg Wiedenmann
The image to the left shows the Galaxea coral under daylight; the image to the right shows how it glows under blue light.
The green fluorescence of the tentacles is due to a green fluorescent protein, whereas the red glow comes from the fluorescence of chlorophyll from algal symbionts.
Image: Jörg Wiedenmann
