Glassfrog ‘disappearing act’ achieved by hiding red blood cells in mirror-coated liver

In their research, Dr Taboada and his colleagues observed that when they turn transparent, all the red blood cells seem to disappear from the frog’s circulatory system.

Imaging-based tests on the frogs were able to confirm that the amphibians are able to achieve transparency by pushing red blood cells out of their vessels.

The team suspected that these cells were being stored in one of the frog’s inner organs, each of which is packaged in a reflective membrane. Proving this, however, was far from a simple process, the researchers said.

Dr Jesse Delia — a zoologist with the American Museum of Natural History, who travelled around the world collecting different glassfrogs to study — explained: “If these frogs awake, stressed, or under anaesthesia, their circulatory system is full of red blood cells and they are opaque.

“The only way to study transparency is if these animals are happily asleep, which is difficult to achieve in a research lab. We were really banging our heads against the wall.”

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Article source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1712949/glassfrog-transparent-hiding-blood-cells-mirror-coated-liver-anticoagulant-drugs