{"id":3062,"date":"2020-12-16T09:14:52","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T09:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetinyphant.com\/?p=3062"},"modified":"2022-05-08T14:53:28","modified_gmt":"2022-05-08T14:53:28","slug":"animals-with-colorful-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetinyphant.com\/animals-with-colorful-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Animals With Colorful Blood (White, Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow)"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is no science fiction, but there are animals with crazy blood colors that aren’t just yellow. Yes, some animals, even the common ones we may not have known of, possess differently colored blood that isn’t just red like humans and most other vertebrates. From green to blue to purple and even colorless, this post is a colorful ride of interesting facts from start to finish.<\/span><\/p>\n Read on to know which animals have different blood colors and why they possess these surprising colorations at all!<\/span><\/p>\n When scientists first heard of it, they thought it was a haox, but some creatures do have white blood. The most prominent example would be the crocodile icefish or the ocellated icefish living in the cold waters surrounding Antarctica that has blood, which is gin-clear.<\/span><\/p>\n When the blood from the icefish clots, it looks like cream, more like whipped cream!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The question, however, is, why is their blood white? If we’re talking about icefish, their blood lacks respiratory pigments- these pigments are majorly the reasons why animals have colored blood. But how do they get by without having any respiratory protein?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The answer lies in their habitat and distribution in the cold waters of Antarctica- the respiratory pigments are usually required to transport oxygen throughout the body. However, the antarctic or the Southern Atlantic waters contain more oxygen; thus icefish do not have to rely on a pigment to transport the oxygen which is already available in abundance in their habitat.<\/span><\/p>\n The other reason is that icefish, living in cold waters, are slow-moving and do not require much oxygen in comparison to the active fishes in the warm waters, thereby getting away without respiratory proteins, the absence of which renders the blood colorless!<\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, insects lack hemoglobin or any respiratory pigment that can impart a vibrant color to their blood. Their blood contains hemolymph that has pale pigments giving it a murky and pale white color. However, the blood isn’t clear or absolutely colorless like the icefish, so do not mistake them to fall under the same category when it comes to colored blood.<\/span><\/p>\n Ocellated Icefish have grayish, black, or brownish bodies with two dorsal fins supported by long and flexible spines, wide pectoral fins, and no scales; it helps them to absorb more oxygen directly through the skin, therefore not requiring hemoglobin. Their diet consists of a variety of marine animals and plants, including plankton, krill, and small fish.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Icefish are able to maintain their liquid blood in a below-freezing temperature, and they can easily swim in freezing waters. Ocellated Icefish live deep down in the cold waters at 200-400 m, found in the Southern Ocean, South Orkney Islands, Antarctica, and the South Shetland Islands with physical characteristics asserting a growth of up to 52 cm in length and a lifespan of 3-8 years.<\/span><\/p>\n Ocellated Icefish have a gin-clear blood color<\/strong> (which is transparent hemoglobin free blood). They do not use hemoglobin to transport oxygen through their bodies; rather, the amount of oxygen they use gets dissolved in the plasma of blood, which is why the pigment (that gives the red color to the blood) is absent overall, making their blood white.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n All insects and most other invertebrates do not have RBCs, unlike humans, that give the reddish color to the blood. Instead, they have a heterogeneous fluid called hemolymph that contains some pigments apart from ions, carbohydrates, and hormones, amongst other things. The pigments are somewhat pale and bland, which is why the insect blood is usually white, tending towards a tinge of yellow or even green.<\/span><\/p>\n If you’ve ever quashed a housefly, you must have seen the color red, but it has pale white blood, and the red color is imparted from the pigment in the eyes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Many marine invertebrates such as brachiopods, penis worms, peanut worms, and others rely on the protein hemerythrin to transport oxygen throughout the body. The absence of hemoglobin should have rendered the blood colorless; however, hemerythrin, when bound with oxygen, turns the blood to a deep purple or violet-to-pink color.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The peanut worm’s body is flexible and mobile, divided into unsegmented and bulbous trunks, with a narrow anterior section called the introvert. The introvert houses the mouth at its tip that is surrounded by a ring of tentacles.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>These wrangling creatures are bottom-dwelling creatures who can survive both in warm and cold water habitats, living in burrows in mud or sand, in rock crevices, and in empty seashells.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Their diet mainly consists of detritus and the edible bits that come in their way while they burrow in the sand. Peanut Worms are marine and benthic found throughout the oceans of the world, with their abundance in coralline rock and in burrows in the rocks in Hawaii.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Peanut Worms have dark purple color blood, which appears almost black, due to the presence of hemerythrin protein in the blood. When the blood is oxygenated, it contains protein, which turns blood from colorless to purple, thus looking somewhat mauve or lilac when seen through naked eyes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\nWhich Animals Have White Blood\/Clear Blood<\/span>?<\/h1>\n
1.) The Ocellated Icefish<\/h2>\n
2.) Insects<\/h2>\n
Which Animals Have Purple Blood?<\/h1>\n
1.) Peanut Worms<\/h2>\n
2.) Brachiopods<\/h2>\n