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Bobtail with your glow so bright, won't you guide my sub tonight?

posted by Zed on January 20 2004 04:25

Years ago, I ordered a glow-in-the-dark squid from Archie McPhee . Unfortunately, it seems they no longer offer it — today their only squids are cocktail squids , though they do offer another glow-in-the-dark cephalopod .

But happily, Mother Nature has glow squids in stock !

A nocturnal squid that cruises the ocean around Hawaii for prey and mates uses a built-in flashlight to hide its shadow from predatory fish on the seafloor. The unique light organ found in the Hawaiian bobtail squid (Euprymma scolopes) is composed of stacks of silvery reflector plates called reflectins that surround colonies of luminescent, symbiotic bacteria.

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