Watch tiny shrimp light up the ocean with synchronized mating display

In 2017, marine biologist James Morin was snorkeling at night in the shallow Caribbean waters off the coast of Panama when he briefly switched on his flashlight. He was shocked to see a large wave of blue light cascading across the seagrass beds below him—“bigger and more impressive than anything I’ve seen before.” The glow was emanating from a group of marine ostracods—tiny, shrimplike crustaceans that have long fascinated seafarers and scientists. These “sea fireflies” are only distantly related to the flying insects that light up summer meadows, but the two have something remarkable in common. According to a study published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B , they both synchronize their mating spectacles , allowing the lights from the sand grain–size ostracods to ripple tens of meters across the ocean floor. “I’ve seen a lot of remarkable things in 30 years of studying bioluminescence,” says Steven Haddock, a marine biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who was not involved with the work. “But these synchronous displays are in the top three most magical moments I’ve ever witnessed.” Researchers have long wondered whether sea fireflies were capable of such collective courtship behavior, says Elizabeth Torres, an evolutionary biologist and expert on the creatures at California State University, Los Angeles who was not involved with the research. “Now we can finally say yes!...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news