Which Animals Have Blue Blood?

Which color do you imagine when you think of blood? Of course, many people think of red since that is the color of human blood and blood for most animals. But, do you know blood also comes in many colors apart from red?

If you’ve ever done an injustice to a fly or caterpillar, then you know what I’m talking about. Was it green? Blue? or perhaps red?….. Well, in an actual sense, several animals out there have different colors of this life-giving fluid.

Today, we talk about blue blood. Let’s find out why blood can be blue:

Why Do Some Animals Have Blue Blood?

Octopuses, snails, horseshoe crabs, and spiders have one thing in common. All of them have blue blood! But why is their blood blue and not red?

This is because octopuses, snails, and spiders, unlike mammals, don’t use hemoglobin to carry oxygen in their bodies. Instead, they use a related compound called hemocyanin. Rather than having an iron atom in its middle, this molecule has a copper atom that binds oxygen.

It absorbs all colors apart from blue, reflecting and making the blood of these creatures appear blue.

7 Animals With Blue Blood

Blood being blue depends on the presence of hemocyanin in place of hemoglobin. Let’s discuss several animals whose blood appears blue due to this factor.

1. Scorpions

Some scorpions have blue blood due to the high level of hemocyanin in the blood, for instance, the Emperor Scorpion. This is the largest in the scorpion family. Scorpions eat various insects, spiders, lizards, and even other scorpions.

They eat small mammals also, such as mice but can live for months without food, only water. Scorpions are on every continent, excluding Antarctica. They are found in habitats ranging from grasslands to tropical rainforests and deserts.

2. Octopuses

Octopuses have blue blood filled with hemocyanin. Hemocyanin works better than hemoglobin in deep-sea environments where oxygen is poor. Octopuses use hemocyanin, the copper-laden protein, to remain alive in the cold, deep, anoxic waters.

In addition, hemocyanin helps the antennae critters control the salt content of their … Read the rest of the story.

from Nature Nibble https://ift.tt/GSBC5cq