The prices of the Beanie Babies on this list are what the sellers say its value is, not what a person would actually be willing to pay for it (though you do you). Value is also extremely subjective and, in many cases, can be inflated by the seller or cultural movements at large. And even then, the only way to attract high bids is if your Beanies are in ~pristine~ condition and you can prove their rarity (like certain color combos, limited editions, etc.). Only v specific Beanie Babies actually rake in the big bucks on popular resale sites. And this obsessive nostalgia could lead to a boost in your bank account.īut before we continue on to the hot topic of Beanie Baby value, there are a few caveats. Much like our culture has become obsessed with '90s songs, '90s movies, and '90s fashion trends, some of our fave '90s toys are getting their revere too. You're going to want to find them because they might be worth LOTS of freaking money. “Given these findings,” Bino says, “you can be sure I’m getting a UV spotlight when I’m next in the field.It's 2023, do you know where your Beanie Babies are? Yes, I said Beanie Babies, as in those small, not-so-plush, plastic-bean-filled animal toys you had in the ’90s. It’s also possible the trait has no real function-that it’s merely an ancestral trait that the platypus has retained in addition to its other primitive characteristics, such as egg-laying.īoth Anich and Bino say they hope to study a living platypus to confirm the biofluorescence discovery and perhaps learn more about the trait’s function. The platypus’s native predators include big fish such as Murray cod, birds of prey and dingos. Many animals, including most birds, can see in UV. It may help them avoid certain predators that can see UV light absorbing UV and emitting blue-green light could serve as a form of camouflage, Anich says.īino agrees that’s plausible. Since the animals are nocturnal and keep their eyes closed when swimming, it seems unlikely to serve an important role in communication with other platypuses, Anich says. “The platypus never ceases to amaze me,” says Bino of the new paper, with which he wasn’t involved. That validates Anich’s finding and shows that living platypuses, not just long-dead ones, are almost certainly fluorescent, says Gilad Bino, a platypus expert at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Shortly before Anich’s study was published, another research paper reported the finding that a freshly killed platypus on a road in Australia glowed under a black light, a lamp that radiates UV light. Out of curiosity, they did the same to a platypus specimen stored there-and saw the glow.
These studies led the team to Chicago’s Field Museum, where the researchers illuminated preserved squirrel pelts with UV lights. ( Learn more about fluorescent flying squirrels.) In 2019, Anich-a mammalogist at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin-and her colleagues found that flying squirrels fluoresce under UV light, emitting a pink glow from fur on their bellies. Though the reasons are unknown, hypotheses include camouflage or communication between individuals of the same species. In just the past few years, scientists have discovered that several types of sea turtle shells, fungi, and flying squirrels are biofluorescent. Common biofluorescent hues include green, red, orange, and blue. From flying squirrels to platypusīiofluorescence is the phenomenon whereby a substance, such as fur, absorbs light at one wavelength and emits it at a different wavelength. “This adds another observation that many animals are biofluorescent, and it opens up questions about what it might mean, if anything, for the species,” says David Gruber, a National Geographic explorer and researcher who studies fluorescence in marine creatures and who wasn’t involved in the paper. The finding expands science’s knowledge of biofluorescence, which researchers are finding to be more widespread throughout the animal kingdom than previously thought. “I was a little flabbergasted to the platypus is biofluorescent,” says study lead author Paula Anich-especially since it’s already “such a unique animal.” In a recent study published in the journal Mammalia, scientists found that when illuminated by ultraviolet (UV) light-a spectrum of light not visible to human eyes-the pelts of platypuses give off a blue-green glow. Now, scientists have found yet another odd trait to add to the list: Fluorescent fur. They also have beaver-like tails and duck-like bills, the latter of which they use to sense prey while hunting at night with their eyes closed. Though mammals, these Australian natives lay eggs and sport venomous spines on their rear legs. The platypus is one of the planet’s strangest creatures on several counts.
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