[3][4][5] Among land-living vertebrates, it had only been confirmed earlier in certain parrots (as opposed to fish and invertebrates where fluorescence is relatively widespread).

[8] When exposed to ultra-violet light, the skin of the polka-dot tree frog emits a bright green fluorescent glow.

The discovery was made accidentally when the researchers checked the skin secretions of the frog under UV light.

They expected only a faint red fluorescence, because the frog skin contains biliverdin, a green tetrapyrrolic bile pigment responsible for its dull mottled browny-green colour.

[6] The fluorescence intensity represents about 18−29% of the luminosity under twilight conditions and is suspected to play a possible role in the communication, camouflage and mating of the frog.