These Transparent Plants and Animals are a Must See

Many want to have invisibility powers that could let the light pass through their bodies and make them transparent. Although humans can never have an invisibility power, many plants and animals have transparent bodies that serve as their camouflage to protect themselves from predators.

"It is relatively common in aquatic species where animal tissue shares a similar refractive index to the surrounding water," behavioral ecologist James Barnett from McMaster University in Canada, explained.

Microscopic and marine animals take advantage of their transparency to hide in water, where there is nowhere else to hide with. But there are also plants and animals that live on land that has developed this ability, from their wings to their leaves. Here are the six transparent plants and animals according to ScienceAlert.

Skeleton Flowers

These skeleton flowers (Diphylleia grayi) look like the average white flower when they are dry but amazingly they transform into flower-shaped transparent crystals when the rain descends upon them. The rough surface and air gaps on their petals work together to reflect light which gives the illusion of whiteness.

But as rainwater fills these gaps and replaces the refractive index of the air, cells, and gaps which marked the petals more closely matched ad lets far more light to pass unaltered and make the petals transparent.

Glass Squids

Glass squids are entirely transparent that only their eyes and stomach are visible. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution biologist Sönke Johnsen explained that the eyes and stomach of the glass squid cannot be transparent because the eyes must absorb light to function and the guts are visible because of their contents.

But the glass squids have overcome this problem as 60 species among the glass squid family combine the photophores in their organs and reflective cells to deflect this light. In that way, it creates an illusion of transparency. Besides, they also swim horizontally along its length to minimize the visibility of their digestive organ.

ALSO READ: Study on Glass Frog and its Translucent Skin Reveals More than Just its Camouflage Technique

Flat Baby Eels

Freshwater eels start off as transparent larva before reaching their adult form. They pass through a leptocephalus larval phase and then become a glass ell, wherein they make themselves extremely flat. The flatter they are, the more light can pass through them, making it hard to spot these eels.

Glass Frogs

Glass frogs, under the family Centrolenidae, have a transparent body, translucent limbs, and visible guts. Their partial transparency helps them camouflage with the lush green leaves of their arboreal forest home. They can match the light levels of their environment as they hide from predators.

Coffee Bee Moth

The coffee bee moth (Cephonodes hylas) has strikingly clear cutaneous wings and the corneal surface of their eyes. They use a strategy to counter reflections caused by the changes in the refractive index between them and the air. They have developed submicroscopic bumps that form an averaged-out smooth gradient which gives the organism the ability to reflect light.

Deep-Sea Amphipod

The deep-sea amphipod, Paraphronima gracilis, has retinas that match the color and brightness of their surroundings. Its eyes are almost 50% as big as its whole body and have 12 retinas each. The retinas are spaced in the right way to make them less obvious from below but also maximizing their sensitivity to light.

READ MORE: Researchers Discover What Makes Deep-sea Dragonfish Teeth Transparent

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