Scientists find out how glass frogs turn transparent and can aid in better understanding of human blood clotting

According to research that was published in Science, a glass frog may pool blood without suffering the consequences of blood clots.

The discovery enhances medical knowledge of blood clotting, a critical problem that affects many people.

In the Tropics, the glass frog spends its days dozing off on vivid green leaves. The creature disguises itself on the leaf and increases its transparency to 61% in order to avoid being noticed by predators.

Researchers discovered that the creature’s transparency results from its capacity to emit various light wavelengths at various times of activity. They discovered that the creatures’ blood pools in their livers.

‘They somehow pack most of the red blood cells in the liver, so they’re removed from the blood plasma. They’re still circulating plasma but they do it somehow without triggering a massive clot,’ Jesse Delia, a researcher at the Museum of Natural History in New York, US, was quoted as saying by BBC.

Up to 89 per cent of the animal’s blood cells become packed together, almost doubling the size of the liver, and allowing the frog to become transparent.

This ability to selectively pool and clot blood is the creature’s ‘superpower,’ Dellia says further, adding that it could enable a better understanding of the blood clotting in humans generally.