Travouillon Kenny J, Cooper Christine, Bouzin Jemmy T, Umbrello Linette S, Lewis Simon W
School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia 6102, Australia.
Collections and Research, Western Australian Museum, Welshpool, Western Australia 6106, Australia.
R Soc Open Sci. 2023 Oct 4;10(10):230325. doi: 10.1098/rsos.230325. eCollection 2023 Oct.
Mammalian fluorescence has been reported from numerous species of monotreme, marsupial and placental mammal. However, it is unknown how widespread this phenomenon is among mammals, it is unclear for many species if these observations of 'glowing' are true fluorescence and the biological function of fluorescence remains undetermined. We examined a wide range of mammal species held in a museum collection for the presence of apparent fluorescence using UV light, and then analysed a subset of preserved and non-preserved specimens by fluorescent spectroscopy at three different excitation wavelengths to assess whether the observations were fluorescence or optical scatter, and the impact of specimen preservation. We also evaluated if fluorescence was related to biological traits. We found that fluorescence is widespread in mammalian taxa; we identified examples of the phenomena among 125 species representing all 27 living mammalian orders and 79 families. For a number of model species, there was no evidence of a corresponding shift in the emission spectra when the wavelength of excitation was shifted, suggesting that observations of 'glowing' mammals were indeed fluorescence. Preservation method impacted the intensity of fluorescence. Fluorescence was most common and most intense among nocturnal species and those with terrestrial, arboreal and fossorial habits, with more of their body being more fluorescent. It remains unclear if fluorescence has any specific biological role for mammals. It appears to be a ubiquitous property of unpigmented fur and skin but may function to make these areas appear brighter and therefore enhance visual signalling, especially for nocturnal species.
在众多单孔目、有袋目和胎盘哺乳动物中都有关于哺乳动物荧光的报道。然而，目前尚不清楚这种现象在哺乳动物中的普遍程度如何，许多物种的这些“发光”观察结果是否为真正的荧光尚不清楚，而且荧光的生物学功能仍未确定。我们利用紫外线对博物馆收藏的多种哺乳动物物种进行了检查，以确定是否存在明显的荧光，然后通过荧光光谱法在三种不同的激发波长下对一部分保存和未保存的标本进行分析，以评估这些观察结果是荧光还是光散射，以及标本保存的影响。我们还评估了荧光是否与生物学特征有关。我们发现荧光在哺乳动物类群中广泛存在；我们在代表所有27个现存哺乳目和79个科的125个物种中发现了这种现象的实例。对于一些模式物种，当激发波长改变时，没有证据表明发射光谱会相应地发生变化，这表明对“发光”哺乳动物的观察确实是荧光。保存方法影响了荧光强度。荧光在夜行性物种以及具有陆地、树栖和穴居习性的物种中最为常见且最为强烈，它们身体的更多部位更具荧光性。目前尚不清楚荧光对哺乳动物是否具有任何特定的生物学作用。它似乎是无色素皮毛和皮肤的一种普遍特性，但可能起到使这些部位看起来更亮的作用，从而增强视觉信号，尤其是对于夜行性物种。
