Thanks to the study of the deep sea, scientists were able to get acquainted with unique deep-sea creatures with phenomenal abilities. Among them, for example, can be attributed fish - anglerfish. Life in complete darkness left its mark on them. On the body of these fish there is a process, at the end of which there is a flask filled with bioluminescent bacteria. They just kind of glow.

But, as it turned out, other fish living at great depths can also glow. This effect is called biofluorescence. Among these marine life include: stingray, moray eel, sea ​​igloo, fish - a stone, fish - a surgeon and a number of others. The glow of their bodies has a slightly different nature. It is due to the special structure of their skin. Under the influence of light rays belonging to the blue light spectrum, their bodies begin to glow, acquiring neon, red, yellow, orange and other light shades. Scientists call this phenomenon biofluorescence.

Its main difference from bioluminescence is that there are no chemical reactions that cause luminescence. The glow effect, in this case, has a slightly different nature. In this case, the bodies of living organisms absorb blue light rays, transform them into rays of a different spectrum, and emit them into the surrounding space.

Fluorescent molecules located in the skin of living beings are responsible for this process. It is they who, just, absorb the rays of the blue light spectrum. When light photons collide with these molecules, they are excited, accompanied by the release a large number the energy accumulated by the electrons of fluorescent molecules. They cannot stay in this state for a long time, and will try to get rid of excess energy in order to go into normal condition. This is what eventually happens. The energy is released, and in the form of light photons it goes into the surrounding space, causing a glow, but of a completely different light spectrum. Depending on the energy level of the emitted photons, the body of a living being will acquire different color shades.

It turns out that fish living in the ocean, which have the effect of biofluorescence, absorb the light rays of the blue spectrum. A logical question arises, why only blue? The thing is that the light rays of the red and infrared spectrum are absorbed upper layers water, therefore, the rays of the blue and green spectra penetrate to the depth, mainly. Scientists have found that at a depth of more than 100 meters there are only blue light rays, which are absorbed by the bodies of deep-sea fish.

The depths of the oceans and seas are inhabited by many amazing living creatures, among which there is a real miracle of nature. These are deep-sea, which are equipped with unique organs - photophores. These special lantern glands may be located in different places: on the head, around the mouth or eyes, on the antennae, on the back, on the sides or on the processes of the body. The photophores are filled with mucus with glowing bioluminescent bacteria.

deep sea glowing fish

It is worth noting that glowing fish is able to control the glow of bacteria by itself, expanding or constricting blood vessels, tk. Flashes of light require oxygen.

One of the most interesting representatives glowing fish are deep sea anglers, which live at a depth of about 3000 meters.

In the arsenal of females reaching a meter in length, there is a special rod with a “bait-beacon” at its end, which attracts prey to it. Very interesting view is the bottom galateatauma (lat.Galatheathauma axeli), which is equipped with a light "bait" right in the mouth. She does not "trouble" herself with hunting, because it is enough for her to take a comfortable position, open her mouth and swallow the "naive" prey.

Anglerfish (lat. Ceratioidei)

Another interesting representative, glowing fish is a black dragon (lat. Malacosteus niger). She emits red light with the help of special "spotlights" that are located under her eyes. For the deep-sea inhabitants of the ocean, this light is invisible, and the black dragon fish illuminates its path, while remaining unnoticed.

Those representatives of deep-sea fish that have specific organs of luminescence, telescopic eyes, etc., are true deep sea fish, they should not be confused with the deep-sea shelf, which do not have such adaptive organs and live on the continental slope.

Black dragon (Latin Malacosteus niger)

Known since glowing fish:

lantern-eyed (lat. Anomalopidae)

luminous anchovies, or miktofovye (lat. Myctophidae)

anglerfish (lat. Ceratioidei)

Brazilian luminous (cigar) sharks (lat. Isistius Brasiliensis)

gonostoma (lat. Gonostomatidae)

chauliodnye (lat. Chauliodontidae)

Luminous anchovies are small fish with a laterally compressed body, a large head and a very large mouth. The length of their body, depending on the species, is from 2.5 to 25 cm. They have special luminous organs that emit green, blue, or yellowish light, which is formed due to chemical reactions occurring in photocytic cells.

Glowing anchovies (Latin Myctophidae)

They are widely distributed throughout the oceans. Many species of myctophids have a huge number. The Myctophidae, together with the Photihthidae and Gonostomas, account for up to 90% of the population of all known deep-sea fishes.

Gonostoma (lat. Gonostomatidae)

The life of these deep-sea elusive representatives of the marine fauna is carefully hidden from prying eyes, so it takes place at a depth of 1000 to 6000 meters. And since the World Ocean, according to scientists, has been studied by less than 5%, humanity is still waiting for a lot of amazing discoveries, among them, perhaps, there will be new types of deep-sea glowing fish.

And with others, no less interesting creatures inhabiting sea ​​depths you will be introduced to these articles:

V. LUNKEVICH.

Valeryan Viktorovich Lunkevich (1866-1941) - biologist, teacher, outstanding popularizer.

Rice. 1. Night light "Sea candle".

Rice. 3. Fish angler.

Rice. 4. Glowing fish.

Rice. 6. Coral branch with luminous polyps.

Rice. 5. Glowing cephalopod.

Rice. 7. Female firefly.

Rice. Fig. 8. The organ of luminescence in a cephalopod mollusk: a - the light part, resembling a lens; b - inner layer of luminous cells; c - layer of silvery cells; d - layer of dark pigment cells.

Which of us has not had to admire the warm summer evening the greenish lights of firefly bugs that shoot through the air in different directions? But how many people know that not only some bugs, but also other animals, especially the inhabitants of the seas and oceans, are endowed with the ability to glow?

Everyone who spent the summer on the Black Sea coast has witnessed one of the most beautiful spectacles of nature more than once.

The night is coming. The sea is calm. Small ripples glide across its surface. Suddenly, a bright stripe flashed on the crest of one of the nearest waves. Behind her flashed another, a third ... There are many of them. They will sparkle for a moment and fade along with the broken wave to light up again. You stand, looking, as if spellbound, at the millions of lights flooding the sea with their light, and you ask - what's the matter here?

This mystery has long been solved by science. It turns out that billions of microscopic creatures known as nightlights emit light (Fig. 1). Warm summer water favors their reproduction, and then they rush across the sea in countless hordes. In the body of each such nightlight, yellowish balls are scattered, which emit light.

Let's "fast forward" now to one of the tropical seas and dive into its waters. Here the picture is even more magnificent. Now some strange animals are swimming in a sedate crowd, now alone: ​​they look like umbrellas or bells made of dense jelly. These are jellyfish: large and small, dark and luminous, sometimes blue, sometimes green, sometimes yellow, sometimes reddish. Among these mobile multi-colored "lanterns" a giant jellyfish floats calmly, slowly, whose umbrella has a diameter of sixty to seventy centimeters (Fig. 2). Visible in the distance emitting light fish. The fish-moon rushes headlong, like the moon among other luminous fish-stars. One of the fish has eyes that burn brightly, another has a process on its head, the top of which resembles a lit electric lamp, the third has a long cord with a “flashlight” at the end (Fig. 3) on its upper jaw, and some luminous fish are completely filled with radiance due to special organs located along their body like electric light bulbs strung on a wire (Fig. 4).

We go down below - to where the light of the sun no longer penetrates, where, it would seem, there should be eternal, impenetrable darkness. And here and there "fires burn"; and here the darkness of the night is cut through by rays emanating from the body of various luminous animals.

On seabed, among the stones and algae, luminous worms and mollusks swarm. Their naked bodies are strewn with brilliant stripes, spots or specks, like diamond dust; on the ledges of underwater rocks, starfish flooded with light flaunt; the crayfish immediately darts to all ends of its hunting territory, illuminating the path in front of it with huge, spyglass-like eyes.

But the most magnificent of all is one of the cephalopods: it is all bathed in the rays of a bright blue color (Fig. 5). One moment - and the light went out: just turned off the electric chandelier. Then the light appears again - at first weak, then more and more bright, now it casts already in purple - the colors of the sunset. And there it goes out again, to flare up again for a few minutes with the color of delicate green foliage.

IN underwater world you can see other colorful paintings.

Let us recall the well-known branch of red coral. This branch is the home of animals that are very simple in organization - polyps. Polyps live in extensive colonies that look like bushes. Polyps build their homes from lime or horny matter. Such dwellings are called polyp stands, and a branch of red coral is a particle of the polyp. Underwater rocks in some places are completely covered with a whole grove of coral bushes of various shapes and colors (Fig. 6) with many tiny closets in which hundreds of thousands of polyps sit - animals that look like white flowers. In many polypnyaks, the polyps seem to be engulfed in flames, formed by numerous lights. The lights sometimes burn unevenly and intermittently, changing color: they suddenly sparkle with a violet light, then turning into red, or they sparkle with a pale blue and, having run through a whole range of transitions from blue to green, freeze in the color of an emerald or go out, forming black shadows around themselves, and there again flash iridescent sparks.

There are luminous animals among the inhabitants of the land: they are almost entirely beetles. There are six species of such beetles in Europe. IN tropical countries there are significantly more of them. They all make up one family of lampyrids, that is, fireflies. The "illumination" sometimes arranged by these bugs is a very spectacular sight.

One night I was on a train from Florence to Rome. Suddenly, sparks flying near the car caught my attention. At first they could be mistaken for sparks thrown out by a locomotive chimney. Glancing out the window, I saw that our train was rushing forward through a light, transparent cloud woven from tiny golden-blue lights. They sparkled everywhere. They circled, pierced the air in radiant arcs, cut it in different directions, crossed, drowned and flared up again in the night mist, poured down on the ground in a fiery rain. And the train raced farther and farther, shrouded in a magical veil of lights. Five minutes, or even more, this unforgettable spectacle lasted. Then we burst out of the cloud of burning motes, leaving them far behind us.

They were myriads of firefly beetles, our train crashed into the thick of these nondescript-looking insects, gathered on a quiet, warm night, apparently in mating season own life. (A similar phenomenon can be observed not only in the Mediterranean countries, but also in Russia. If you are on a warm and not rainy evening in the second half of summer, drive up to Black Sea coast, observe in the vicinity of the city of Tuapse the extravaganza described by the author. Due to the many tunnels, the abundance of turns and the single track, the train does not go very fast, and the flight of fireflies is viewed as a bewitching sight. - Yu.M.)

Certain types of fireflies emit light of relatively high intensity. There are fireflies that glow so brightly that on a dark horizon from afar you can’t immediately determine what is in front of you - a star or a firefly. There are species in which both males and females glow equally well (for example, Italian fireflies). Finally, there are such types of bugs in which the male and female glow differently, although they look the same: in the male, the luminescence organ is better developed and acts more energetically than in the female. When the female is underdeveloped, has only rudimentary wings or is completely wingless, and the male is developed normally, then something else is observed: in the female, the organs of luminescence function much more strongly than in the male; the more underdeveloped the female, the more motionless and helpless she is, the brighter her luminous organ. The best example here is the so-called "Ivanov worm", which is not a worm at all, but a larval-like female of a special species of firefly beetles (Fig. 7). Many of us admired its cold, even light, breaking through the foliage of a bush or grass. But there is an even more interesting sight - the glow of a female of another species of fireflies. Inconspicuous during the day, similar to an annelids, at night it literally bathes in the rays of its own magnificent bluish-white light thanks to the abundance of luminous organs.

However, it is not enough to admire the glow of living beings. It is necessary to know what causes the glow of the inhabitants of the underwater and terrestrial world and what role it plays in the life of animals.

Inside each nightlight, with the help of a microscope, you can see many yellowish grains - these are luminous bacteria that live in the body of nightlights. By emitting light, they also make these microscopic animals luminous. The same must be said about the fish, whose eyes are like burning lanterns: their glow is caused by luminous bacteria that have settled in the cells of the luminous organ of this fish. But the glow of animals is not always associated with the activity of luminous bacteria. Sometimes light is produced by special luminous cells of the animal itself.

The luminous organs of various animals are built according to the same type, but some are simpler, while others are more complex. While luminous polyps, jellyfish and starfish the whole body glows, some breeds of crayfish have only one light source - big eyes similar to a telescope. However, among the luminous animals, one of the first places rightfully belongs to cephalopods. These include the octopus, which has the ability to change the color of its outer covers.

What organs cause glow? How are they built and how do they work?

In the skin of the cephalopod, there are small, hard, oval-shaped bodies. The front part of this body, looking outward, is completely transparent and is something similar to the lens of the eye, and the back, most of it, is, as it were, wrapped in a black shell of pigment cells (Fig. 8). Directly under this shell, silvery cells lie in several rows: they make up the middle layer of the luminous organ of the mollusk. Below it are cells of complex shape, resembling the nerve elements of the retina of the eye. They line inner surface this little body ("apparatus"). They also emit light.

So, the "bulb" of a cephalopod consists of three different layers. Light is emitted by the cells of the inner layer. Reflected from the silvery cells of the middle layer, it passes through the transparent end of the "bulb" and goes out.

Another curious detail in this luminous "apparatus". In the skin of a cephalopod, near each such body, something like a concave mirror or reflector rises. Each such reflector in the "bulb" of the mollusk consists, in turn, of a two-fold kind of cells, of dark pigment cells that do not transmit light, in front of which silver cells reflecting light are located in rows.

While an organism lives, various chemical processes take place in its cells. In connection with these processes in the body, there are various forms energy: thermal, thanks to which it warms up; mechanical, on which its movements depend; electrical, which is connected with the work of his nerves. Light is too special kind energy generated under the influence of inner work that takes place in the body. The substance of luminous bacteria and those cells that make up the luminous apparatus of animals, oxidizing, radiates light energy.

What role does light play in animal life? Answer this question in each separate case so far failed. But the benefits of glow for many animals can hardly be doubted. Luminous fish and crayfish live at a depth where sunlight does not penetrate. In the dark, it is difficult to distinguish what is happening around, track down prey and elude the enemy in time. Meanwhile, luminous fish and crayfish are sighted, have eyes. The ability to glow makes their lives easier.

In addition, we know how some animals are attracted to the light. A fish that has something like a light bulb sticking out of its head, or an anglerfish, endowed with a long cord-like tentacle "with a flashlight" at the end, use luminous organs to attract prey. The cephalopod mollusk is even happier in this respect: its changeable, iridescent light attracts some, frightens others. Some varieties of small luminous crustaceans, in a moment of danger, throw out jets of luminous substance, the resulting luminous cloud hides them from the enemy. Finally, the glow in some animals serves as a means of finding and attracting one sex of the animal to another: males thus find females or, conversely, attract them to themselves. Therefore, the glow of animals is one of the adaptations that are so rich in Live nature, one of the weapons in the struggle for existence.

Which of us has not had to admire on a warm summer evening the greenish lights of fireflies, which shoot through the air in different directions? But how many people know that not only some bugs, but also other animals, especially the inhabitants of the seas and oceans, are endowed with the ability to glow?

Everyone who spent the summer on the Black Sea coast has witnessed one of the most beautiful spectacles of nature more than once.

The night is coming. The sea is calm. Small ripples glide across its surface. Suddenly, a bright stripe flashed on the crest of one of the nearest waves. Behind her flashed another, a third ... There are many of them. They will sparkle for a moment and fade along with the broken wave to light up again. You stand, looking, as if spellbound, at the millions of lights flooding the sea with their light, and you ask - what's the matter here?

This mystery has long been solved by science. It turns out that billions of microscopic animals emit light - ciliates, known as nightlights. Warm summer water favors their reproduction, and then they rush across the sea in countless hordes. In the body of each such nightlight, yellowish balls are scattered, which emit light.

But let's leave the surface of the sea. Let's dive into its waters. Here the picture is even more magnificent. Now some strange animals are swimming in a sedate crowd, now alone: ​​they look like umbrellas or bells made of dense jelly. These are jellyfish: large and small, dark and glowing either blue, then green, then yellow, then reddish. Among these mobile multi-colored "lanterns" floats calmly, slowly, a giant jellyfish, whose umbrella has a diameter of sixty - seventy centimeters. Fish radiating light can be seen in the distance. The fish-moon rushes headlong, like the moon among other luminous fish. One of the fish has bright eyes, the other has a process on its muzzle, the top of which resembles a lit electric lamp; at the third mandible a long cord dangles with a "flashlight" at the end, and some luminous fish are completely filled with radiance thanks to special organs located along their body like electric light bulbs strung on a wire.

We go down below - to where the light of the sun no longer penetrates, where, it would seem, there should be eternal, impenetrable darkness. And here and there "fires burn"; and here the darkness of the night is cut through by rays emanating from the body of various luminous animals.

Luminous worms and molluscs swarm on the seabed among stones and algae. Their naked bodies are strewn with brilliant stripes, spots or specks - like diamond dust; on the ledges of underwater rocks, starfish flooded with light flaunt; the crayfish immediately darts to all ends of its hunting territory, illuminating the path in front of it with huge, spyglass-like eyes.

But the most magnificent of all is one of the cephalopods: He is all bathed in rays of bright blue. One moment - and the light went out: just turned off the plug electric chandelier. Then the light reappears - at first weak, then more and more bright: now it casts purple - the colors of the sunset. And there it goes out again, to flare up again for a few minutes with the color of delicate green foliage.

In the underwater world you can see other colorful paintings

Recall the well-known branch of red coral. This branch is the home of animals that are very simple in organization - polyps. Polyps live in extensive colonies that look like bushes. Polyps build their homes from lime or horny matter. Such dwellings are called polyp stands, and a branch of red coral is a particle of such a polyp. Underwater rocks in some places are completely covered with a whole grove of coral bushes of various shapes and colors with many tiny closets, in which hundreds of thousands of polyps sit - animals that look like little white flowers. In many polypnyaks, the polyps seem to be engulfed in flames, formed by numerous lights. The lights sometimes burn unevenly and intermittently, changing color: they suddenly sparkle with a violet light, then turning into red, or they sparkle with a pale blue and, having run through a whole range of transitions from blue to green, freeze in the color of an emerald or go out, forming black shadows around themselves, and there again flash iridescent sparks.

There are luminous animals among the inhabitants of the land: they are almost entirely beetles. There are six species of such beetles in Europe. In tropical countries, they are much more. All of them make up one family of "lampyrids", that is, fireflies. The illumination sometimes arranged by these bugs is a very spectacular sight.

One night I was on a train from Florence to Rome. Suddenly, sparks flying near the car caught my attention. At first they could be mistaken for sparks thrown out by a locomotive chimney. Glancing out the window, I saw that our train was rushing forward through a light, transparent cloud woven from tiny golden-blue lights. They sparkled everywhere. They circled, pierced the air in radiant arcs, cut it in different directions, crossed, drowned and flared up again in the darkness of the night, poured down on the ground in a fiery rain. And the train raced farther and farther, shrouded in a magical veil of lights. Five minutes, or even more, this unforgettable spectacle lasted. Then we burst out of the cloud of burning motes, leaving them far behind us.

They were myriads of firefly beetles, our train crashed into the thick of these nondescript-looking insects that had gathered on this quiet, warm night, apparently in the mating season of their lives.

Certain types of fireflies emit light of relatively high intensity. There are fireflies that glow so brightly that on a dark horizon from a distance you can’t immediately determine what is in front of you: a star or a firefly. There are species in which both males and females glow equally well (for example, Italian fireflies). There are, finally, such types of bugs in which the male and female glow differently, although they look the same: the male's luminescence organ is better developed and acts more energetically than the female. When the female is underdeveloped, has only rudimentary wings or is completely wingless, and the male is developed normally, then something else is observed: in the female, the organs of luminescence function much more strongly than in the male; the more undeveloped the female, the more motionless and helpless she is, the brighter her luminous organ. The best example here is the so-called "Ivanov worm", which is not a worm at all, but a larval-like female of a special kind of firefly beetle. Who among us has not admired its cold, even light, breaking through the foliage of a bush or grass? But there is an even more interesting sight: the glow of a female of another kind of fireflies. Inconspicuous during the day, similar to an annelids, at night it literally bathes in the rays of its own magnificent bluish-white light thanks to the abundance of luminous organs.

But it is not enough to admire the glow of living beings. It is necessary to know what causes the glow of the inhabitants of the underwater and terrestrial world and what role it plays in the life of animals.

Talking about the glow of the sea, we said that inside each nightlight, with the help of a microscope, you can see many yellowish grains: these are luminous bacteria that live in the body of nightlights. By emitting light, they also make these microscopic animals luminous. The same must be said about the fish, whose eyes are like burning lanterns: their glow is caused by luminous bacteria that have settled in the cells of the luminous organ of this fish. But the glow of animals is not always associated with the activity of luminous bacteria. Sometimes light is produced by special luminous cells of the animal itself.

The luminous organs of various animals are built according to the same type: some are simpler, others are more complex. While luminous polyps, jellyfish and starfish have their entire bodies glowing, some crayfish breeds have only one source of light: large, telescope-like eyes. However, among the luminous animals, one of the first places rightfully belongs to cephalopods. These include the octopus, which has the ability to change the color of its outer covers.

What organs cause glow? How are they built and how do they work?

In the skin of the cephalopod, there are small, hard, oval-shaped bodies. The front part of this body, looking outward, is completely transparent and is something similar to the lens of the eye, and the back, most of it, is wrapped in a black shell of pigment cells. Directly under this shell, silvery cells lie in several rows: they make up the middle layer of the luminous organ of the mollusk. Below it are cells of complex shape, resembling the nerve elements of the retina of the eye. They line the inner surface of this body (apparatus). They also emit light.

So, the "bulb" of a cephalopod consists of three different layers. Light is emitted by the cells of the inner layer. Reflected from the silvery cells of the middle layer, it passes through the transparent end of the "bulb" and goes out.

Another curious detail in this luminous apparatus. In the skin of a cephalopod, near each such body, something like a concave mirror or reflector rises. Each such reflector in the "bulb" of a cephalopod mollusk consists, in turn, of two kinds of cells: of dark pigment cells that do not transmit light, in front of which there are rows of silvery cells that reflect light.

This is the most complex luminous organ in animals. Others are built much simpler or have some difference from the organs just described. It is important for us to remember that some multicellular animals have cells that can develop light energy.

While an organism lives, various chemical processes take place in its cells. In connection with these processes, various forms of energy arise in the body: thermal, due to which it warms up; mechanical, on which its movements depend; electrical, which is connected with the work of his nerves. Light is also a special type of energy that arises under the influence of the internal work that takes place in the body. The substance of luminous bacteria and those cells that make up the luminous apparatus of animals, oxidizing, radiates light energy.

What role does light play in animal life?

It has not yet been possible to answer this question in each individual case. But the benefits of glow for many animals can hardly be doubted. Luminous fish and crayfish live at a depth where sunlight does not penetrate. In the dark, it is difficult to distinguish what is happening around, track down prey and elude the enemy in time. Meanwhile, luminous fish and crayfish are sighted, have eyes. The ability to glow makes their lives easier.

In addition, we know how some animals are attracted to the light. A fish that has something like a light bulb sticking out of its head, or an anglerfish, endowed with a long cord-like tentacle "with a flashlight" at the end, uses luminous organs to attract prey. The cephalopod mollusk is even happier in this respect: its changeable, iridescent light attracts some, frightens others. Some varieties of small luminous crustaceans, in a moment of danger, throw out jets of luminous substance, the resulting luminous cloud hides them from the enemy. Finally, the glow in some animals serves as a means of finding and attracting one sex of the animal to another: males thus find females or, conversely, attract them to themselves. Consequently, the glow of animals is one of the adaptations that wildlife is so rich in, one of the tools in the struggle for existence.

Lunkevich V.V. 1941

Luminescence is the emission of visible light and light in the ultraviolet to infrared ranges.
In nature, the phenomenon of luminescence has been known for a long time. Its study led to the discovery of X-rays and radioactivity.
Some animals have systems that allow them to produce fluorescent light to confuse or frighten the enemy.

Do you know where the tales of Firebirds and evil spirits came from? Yes, yes, yes, we are familiar with this phenomenon - luminescence!
Those who have been to the tropics could observe truly amazing underwater glows. And under certain circumstances, some have seen birds, fish, and even people glowing in the dark!

In earlier ages, people were in awe of what they saw. They mistook the birds glowing with cold fire for flying demons. Myths and fairy tales were composed about this phenomenon. Here is one of those myths.
In the annals of the cathedral, located in Staraya Ladoga it is told that the deacon Fyodor was walking along a cliff over the Volkhov River in the autumn evening of 1864 and heard the sound of wings, similar to that of ducks. But what was the horror experienced by Fyodor when he saw a demon flying right at him! The deacon became even more frightening when the demon turned into a goose. Of course, at first no one believed Fyodor's stories, but a few days later "demons" appeared in front of other people. The most courageous tried to catch these Firebirds, but their efforts were not crowned with success. And in late autumn devilry” has disappeared.

In the Arkhangelsk region to this day there are luminous birds. Mostly ducks and geese. There were such meetings in the suburbs. One of the hunters once shot such a bird, and, putting it in his hunting bag, he was surprised to realize that his hands also began to flicker with a strange light. But the glow stopped while he carried his trophy home.
Scientists explain this phenomenon quite simply. According to ornithologists, special microorganisms settle on the feathers of many birds, which create an amazing glow effect.

Stripes on the water, phosphorescent with cold light, can be seen during a night boat trip along the Black Sea near the city of Sochi. Imagine a huge starry sky, in the distance - the lights of coastal villages with proud mountain peaks towering above them and the water gradually flaring up around the ship, which begins to shimmer more and more with a bluish light! The crests of the waves begin to blaze with amazing light, dolphins joyfully play in these flashes. Truly, it is a magnificent sight!

And it is created by marine microorganisms. Jellyfish, some types of squid and fish, shrimps can glow.
Luminous squids were "discovered" by French scientists in 1834. Such a squid has 10 tentacles, and it is found most often in Indian Ocean and off the coast South Africa. The phenomenon of such a glow is called chemiluminescence - this is the transition of chemical energy into light without the cost of heat.
But the phenomenon of luminous giant wheels in tropical seas is still a mystery. These wheels reach several meters in diameter, they rotate and move over the water, bringing eyewitnesses to awe. There are many eyewitnesses to this fantastic spectacle, but so far no one has been able to photograph the wheels.

Fireflies

Who among you has not met tiny fireflies twinkling in the grass with green lights? In Crimea, such fireflies are not uncommon and reach the size of a child's little fingernail. When you first see such a light in the night, you can easily mistake it for the eye of a predator. Still would! Fear has big eyes!
It happens that tropical fireflies gather in huge groups and sit on a tree, several on each leaf. Their light is visible at a distance of one and a half - two kilometers! Moreover, they simultaneously “turn on and extinguish” their “flashlights”.
It is interesting that once such fireflies saved Cuba from invaders! In the 18th century, a sea expedition landed on the island, but at night the colonialists saw a myriad of luminous lights in the forest. The British decided that the enemy forces were too great, they needed to flee before it was too late.