Are There Animals With Copper Based Blood

There are many proteins that transport oxygen in the terrestrial biosphere, this, and this.

One affair to note is that at human body temperature, atmospheric force per unit area, and World'south atmospheric concentration of oxygen Hemoglobin is by far the most efficient oxygen ship protein amongst the list included in this post. It varies from l% more efficient to 10x more efficient than the other oxygen send molecules listed here.

Hemoglobin

Hemoglobin uses iron as its metal atom. We are all familiar with hemoglobin and its color red.

Hemocyanin

Hemocyanin's can be found in certain mollusks. It is colorless when not transporting oxygen and bluish when transporting oxygen. Hemocyanin uses 2 copper atoms in its protein structure and the protein is very similar (but not identical) to hemoglobin.

Chlorocruorin

Chlorocruorin's uses $Fe^{II}$ every bit its metal ion.

A dichromatic compound, chlorocruorin is noted for appearing dark-green in dilute solutions, though it appears low-cal red when found in concentrated solutions.

Hemerythrin

Hemerythrin uses $Fe^{2}$

Hemerythrin is an iron bearing oxygen ship protein often plant in the muscles of marine invertebrates.

Hemerythrin and myohemerythrin are essentially colorless when deoxygenated, only plough a violet-pink in the oxygenated land.

Erythrocruorin

Erythrocruorin is an iron bearing poly peptide. I didn't discover definitive description of its color but I remember it would be a light reddish.

Erythrocruorin is a big oxygen-carrying protein, whose molecular mass is greater than three.5 one thousand thousand Daltons. It is related to the like chlorocruorin. It is institute in many annelids and arthropods (including some insects).

and Earthworms.

Pinnaglobin

Only seen in the mollusc Pinna squamosa. Brown manganese-based porphyrin [oxygen transport] protein.

Coboglobin

Coboglobin is currently a synthetic protein that performs the same function as hemoglobin. It uses Cobalt in place of the iron atoms.

Blood of this type would be amber yellow in color when in the veins while uncoloured and clear in the arteries.

It might brand an interesting blood for synthetic biological organisms (like the 1 found in the picture show Aliens)...

Chloro-carbonyl-bis(tri phenylphosphine)-iridium

An Iridium (ane of the Platinum Grouping Metals) ion based molecule that is yellow when oxygenated and dull orange when not. It provides the additional capability of serving every bit a hydrogen send molecule too - which might make for interesting biological science on a gas giant planet. The organism would require a biological/chemic pathway to generate oxygen from chemicals institute in the environment and then send that molecule to the cells that needed energy. Perchance the oxygen circulatory system and hydrogen circulatory system would need to be separated?

In solution, the chemical compound takes up ane atom of oxygen per molecule to alter from bright yellowish to sullen orangish...

In the oxygenated status, the iridium-based blood of extraterrestrials would have to be protected from low-cal because information technology is very photosensitive. The pigment slowly decomposes over a period of days or weeks when exposed to strong light, gradually changing color from orange to dark-green and finally to a deep bluish-black. Such aliens would therefore either have very night skin, or would inhabit a dimly lit world. (In the absence of lite, the molecule is stable for years.)

The iridium complex has 1 additional belongings which is extremely fascinating to xenobiologists. In add-on to oxygen, the molecule is also capable of reversibly binding hydrogen as well!

In Summary

• Pinkish (Atomic number 26 - Hemerythrin)
• Red (Iron - many)
• Orange (Iridium - chloro-carbonyl-bis(tri phenylphosphine)-iridium)
• Yellow (Cobalt - Coboglobin, Iridium - chloro-carbonyl-bis(tri phenylphosphine)-iridium)
• Green (Iron - Chlorocruorin)
• Blue (Copper - Hemocyanin)
• Violet (Iron - Hemerythrin)
• Clear (Cobalt - Coboglobin, Iron - Hemerythrin)
• Chocolate-brown (Manganese - Pinnaglobin)

All just two of these (the exceptions are the Cobalt and Iridium based molecules) are known to be in living organism in the terrestrial biosphere.

Source: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/28276/other-blood-colors

Posted by: kraemergrance.blogspot.com

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