Glowing sharks

The tiny shark living in two oceans uses light emitted from the abdomen to evade enemies.

>>>Strange sharks show up in the Pacific Ocean

Dwarf sharks have a maximum body length of 22cm. (Photo: Discovery)

Some scientists have suspected that dwarf sharks possess glowing organs in their abdomen. But that theory has never been verified."Nobody knows if those bodies actually emit light , " said Julien Claes, a researcher at the University of Louvain in Switzerland.

Discovery said, scientists of Dong Hwa University on the island of Taiwan captured some dwarf sharks Squaliolus aliae to test their glowing ability. They exposed a few pieces of their skin to the chemicals that could stimulate the glowing phenomenon. The results showed that skin samples glowed after exposure to a chemical called melatonin. But when the team gave prolactin, a hormone, into the skin samples, light faded.

The team thinks that dwarf sharks use only light to disguise, not to communicate like many other glowing animals.

Dwarf sharks - up to 22cm in length - live just below the surface of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Because dwarf sharks live just below the surface of the ocean, their enemies live in deeper water. When the light emitted from the belly of the dwarf shark, the enemy will not be able to see them.

Reference: Discovery