Multimedia Gallery
Hawaiian bobtail squid (Euprymna scolopes)
The Hawaiian bobtail squid (Euprymna scolopes) is a night-active predator on the shallow reef flats of the Hawaiian archipelago. To hunt at night, this small animal uses light produced by a population of the bacterial symbiont Vibrio fischeri to camouflage against the moonlight and starlight. Such symbiosis -- the mutually beneficial relationship between different organisms -- is likely occurring in higher animals as well, including humans.
To learn more about this research, see the University of Wisconsin–Madison news story The color of blood: Pigment helps stage symbiosis in squid. (Date image taken: February 2012; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Aug. 16, 2017)
Credit: Chris Frazee/University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
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