Shark skin study illuminates new fluorescent molecules

A family of fluorescent molecules that give certain shark species glowing green skin has been discovered by researchers in the US. A group led by Jason Crawford at Yale University has discovered that this is due to a previously undescribed family of small molecule metabolites present in their denticles, tiny tooth-like scales that make up their skin. This sets the sharks apart from other sea creatures such as jellyfish whose biofluorescent properties are due to well-characterised proteins like GFP.