#ArtYourAmphibian2020 - Jennifer Lamb Playing Cards

One of our favourite #ArtYourAmphibian submissions in 2020! Jennifer Lamb, St. Cloud State University, Assistant Professor From the artists: Science has known about biofluorescence in animals for a while, but most of the previous survey work has focused on marine vertebrates or on terrestrial invertebrates, like arthropods. We (myself and co-author, Matt Davis) recently discovered that biofluorescence is widespread across amphibian biodiversity and our work was just published in Scientific Reports. Each of the 32 species of frogs, salamanders, and caecilians we tested fluoresced green to some degree. Interestingly, species that are camouflaged by patterns that help them blend in with leaf litter, like this Cranwell's frog, shine bright green. This could indicate that biofluoresence might be useful in nocturnal surveys for cryptic taxa. There is a lot of excitement in these new discoveries, and it helps drive home the point that there is still a lot to learn about amphibians, how they might perceive their world, and how they might be perceived by other species.