The first group of animals on Earth to glow

Bioluminescence, the ability of organisms to produce light through chemical reactions, may have emerged 540 million years ago in deep-sea corals .

Scientists at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History discovered that a group of marine invertebrates that existed 540 million years ago may have been the first animals to bioluminescent, about 300 million years earlier. years compared to previously thought, Independent reported on April 23. The new research was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences.

Some species of 8-compartment coral (Octocorallia). (Photo: NOAA).

Bioluminescence is the ability of living organisms to produce light through chemical reactions. Previously, scientists believed that this ability appeared as early as about 267 million years ago, in a group of small marine crustaceans called Ostracoda . Bioluminescence has evolved independently at least 94 times in nature and is involved in a variety of behaviors such as camouflage, courtship, communication, and hunting.

"No one clearly knows why this ability began to develop in animals ," said Andrea Quattrini, coral curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and senior author of the study. shall.

"We wanted to find out when bioluminescence appeared, and octocorallia are one of the oldest groups of animals on the planet that can bioluminescent. So the question is how did they develop? "When did this ability become possible?" , said Danielle DeLeo, lead author of the new study.

Together with expert Catherine McFadden from Harvey Mudd College, Quattrini completed a detailed evolutionary map of eight-chambered corals in 2022, using data from 185 species. Based on fossil dating and many statistical methods, the research team found that, 540 million years ago, the common ancestor of eight-chambered corals was most likely bioluminescent. Over a long period of time, today's eight-chambered corals still have thousands of species with relatively high rates of bioluminescence, suggesting that this ability plays an important role in their success.

"Our study reveals the oldest known case of bioluminescence on Earth, twice the previous date. Our findings support the idea that bioluminescence, and its Light signaling, in general, is one of the earliest forms of communication on the planet. We now know that bioluminescence is an important form of communication for many animals, especially those below. deep sea" , DeLeo commented.