180 Shark Species Glow in the Dark (Unique Molecule)

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Over 180 shark species glow in the dark, and they do it using a molecule that has never been found in any other living thing on the entire planet.

[00:00:09]In 2021, scientists [music] studying the velvet belly lantern shark, a deep-sea species, discovered it produces biofluorescence using a brominated kynurenine metabolite.

[00:00:21]What made the world stop? This exact compound had never been identified in any other organism in the history of biology.

[00:00:28]Not in plants, not in bacteria, [music] not in any other animal.

[00:00:33]Sharks invented it alone.

[00:00:36]These sharks live where zero sunlight reaches, hundreds of meters below the surface.

[00:00:41]Their glow isn't random.

[00:00:44]The patterns of light match their own species perfectly, meaning they're using bioluminescence as a secret visual language [music] to find mates and recognize each other in total darkness.

[00:00:55]Here's the