this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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Ever notice mammals never seem to come in green? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 6 months ago by tunetardis@lemmy.ca to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects? Sure. But no mammals.

So I had to google it. Apparently, there is a sloth that moves around so slowly moss grows all over it and it doesn't care. So it may appear green, but only in the sense that it wears it.

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[โ€“] Geobloke@lemm.ee 23 points 6 months ago (1 children)

We might not be looking at them with the right eyes

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/04/positively-glowing-fluorescent-mammals-are-far-more-common-than-earlier-thought-study-suggests

[โ€“] tunetardis@lemmy.ca 6 points 6 months ago

Wow, that is fascinating!

Makes me wonder about the other direction, going into the near infrared as opposed to UV. I remember from a class in remote sensing that many plants are actually most reflective in that band (more so than in green, even). NIR air photos are often used by biologists to get an indication of the health of a forest. But I have no idea whether animals also reflect NIR? It may be that most animals cannot see in that band in the first place, so it would not offer any camouflage advantage.